Student Spotlight: Ian Hughes is expanding FIRST Robotics in Madison

Ian Hughes, a junior in the Mechanical Engineering (ME) bachelor’s program, traces his interest in engineering back to his early involvement in FIRST Robotics – a nonprofit that introduces students to STEM through hands-on, team-driven robot design challenges. The program made such an impact on Hughes he felt compelled to give back. At UW-Madison, he helped found the FIRST Alumni student organization to help expand FIRST teams and mentorship opportunities throughout the Madison and Wisconsin communities.

Learn more about Ian’s experience and how his ME degree has complimented his work with FIRST below.

What has your engineering journey been like? How did FIRST Robotics influence your journey to becoming a mechanical engineer?

I’ve always been drawn to building things and solving problems, and I realized I wanted to be a mechanical engineer when I joined the middle school version of FIRST Robotics. Being part of a team that designed, fabricated, and tested a 120-lb robot from scratch in high school was what really settled it for me, though. Being able to see a project we worked on for months come together in a competition was always amazing.

My journey since then has been about finding ways to connect technical learning with real impact. I have done a lot of state advocacy for funding robotics programs in Wisconsin and started the FIRST Alumni of Madison mentor program here at Madison.

Can you tell us more about FIRST Alumni? What is this group and what are its goals?

The FIRST Alumni of Madison is a student organization I helped found in Spring of 2024 at UW–Madison, along with two other UW-Madison students – Megan Volkening (Mechanical Engineering major) and David Eapen (Computer Engineering & Computer Science major). Our goal is to connect college students who participated in FIRST Robotics at their local middle and high schools with opportunities to give back as mentors, volunteers, and advocates. We support the growth of local FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), and FIRST Lego League (FLL) teams, while also creating a community on campus for students who were in FIRST.

As one of the founding members, what has your involvement in FIRST Alumni been?

As the group’s Mentoring Coordinator, I’ve worked to match UW–Madison students with new FIRST teams in Dane County. Over the past two years, we’ve helped launch three new high school robotics teams at Sun Prairie West, Oregon, and Edgewood. Through an Argosy Foundation grant we secured, we’ve been able to fund an hourly wage, travel stipends, supplies, and training for UW mentors which helps make volunteering sustainable for busy college students. We also helped advocate for and secure a $250,000 increase in statewide funding for FIRST Robotics programs in Wisconsin. Through these efforts, we have grown the Madison area FRC program from 1 team to 4 teams and have plans for starting two more teams over the next year.

How has your Mechanical Engineering degree complimented the work you’re doing with FIRST alumni? OR how has FIRST robotics club complimented your ME degree?

They’ve really gone hand in hand. The design, analysis, and teamwork skills I’ve learned in Mechanical Engineering, specifically CAD modeling, have helped me mentor students building competitive robots. At the same time, mentoring reinforces my own engineering fundamentals because I constantly must explain why things work the way they do. FIRST also taught me leadership, communication, and project management skills long before I took a formal engineering class which all helped with mentoring young students.

Do you have a favorite memory or anecdote you can share about FIRST alumni?

One of my favorite moments was at the 2025 Wisconsin Regional, when a rookie team from Oregon High School we helped start, FRC 10553 Orange Overdrive, won the Rookie All-Star Award and advanced to the State Tournament. Watching their students celebrate and realizing our UW mentors had played a role in making that happen was incredibly rewarding. A student from the team also won the Dean’s List Award (an individual award), which got him an invitation to the World Championships in Houston.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering would like to commend Ian and the FIRST Alumni of Madison student org for the work they are doing to increase Madison/Wisconsin youth’s exposure to the STEM field. It is stories like these that exemplify the spirit of UW-Madison students who turn their interests into meaningful action. As the group continues on this journey, they are helping to build the next generation of engineers – one team, one student, and one robot at a time.