High School Space Crunch Yields Opportunities for Robot-Savvy Workers

ChamberCommunityEconomicPress Release

NC Robotics Initiative Captures the Imagination of Johnston County Students
 
Johnston County, N.C. – May 15, 2025. Robotics is changing manufacturing -- taking over repetitive tasks on a round-the-clock basis with untiring consistency and precision that human hands cannot match. In 2023, over 39,000 industrial robots were installed in the United States, according to the International Federation of Robotics (WFR), a non-profit trade association based in Frankfurt, Germany. That’s a 10 percent increase from 2022, WFR found.
 
The numbers spell opportunity for Bhakti Patel, who recently graduated from Smithfield-Selma High School and is among an increasing number of Johnston County students pondering robotics as a possible career path. Robotics caught Patel’s imagination in 6th grade. More recently, she leads and mentors other students interested in building robots as part of intense competitions among secondary-school robotics clubs. This fall, Patel will enroll at N.C. State University, where she intends to pursue an engineering degree mixed with business studies.
 
“While I'm sad that my robotics journey has ended, I'm proud of what I've learned and my accomplishments within the team and our community,” says Patel, who served as president of the club this year. “Robotics showed me how engineering skills can be used for the greater good. From teaching me engineering skills to how to handle public speaking, I've been set up for success at N.C. State,” she says.
 
Patel and her fellow robot-builders have had a unique resource in the form of a well-directed robotics club at Smithfield-Selma Senior High. But the group faced uncertainty last fall when school officials could no longer provide the physical space to house the program. That’s when Johnston County Economic Development Director Chris Johnson made a call to Kevin Dougherty, head of AdVenture Development LLC in Selma. “Chris explained that the robotics clubs at Smithfield-Selma had a strong following and a strong team, but no space,” Dougherty recalls.
 
AdVenture is developing Eastfield Crossing, a 435-acre mixed-use community in Selma that is creating space for arriving companies like VeeTee Foods and Crystal Window & Door Systems. Eastfield also includes extensive retail property that is centrally located within Johnston County. Troy Brindle, who coaches the Smithfield-Selma robotics club, visited Dougherty and toured a 7,500-sq.-ft. industrial space adjacent to the Old North State Food Hall. Brindle liked the vacant site, but the club lacked the resources to pay market rent. “We talked internally and decided it would be a very community-oriented thing for AdVenture to let the club occupy the space pro bono,” Dougherty says. “We liked the synergy and the connection of doing that.”
 
The club has since resided at the Eastfield space, which is now known as the North Carolina Robotics Initiative (NCRI). In January, students began meeting there after school -- often staying well into the evening – spending about three months conceptualizing, designing, building and testing their robot in advance of the April competition. “About 20 kids and five mentors are in here at any given time,” explains Brindle.
 
Patel and her team recently vied against other students from across the state at theFIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) in Hickory and Greenville, finishing 40th among the 90 contenders. The additional space has allowed the program to expand. “I am happy to see NCRI now offer middle-school robotics opportunities alongside those available for high schoolers,” says Patel. She calls NCRI “the STEAM resource in our community,” referring to the convergence of science, technology, engineering, arts and math curricula. “In the near future, it intends to impact K-12 students in our county by offering afterschool classes,” she says.


Not all of Patel’s teammates are budding engineers. Eli Spottswood, another member of the 2025 graduating class, handles media for the group. This fall, Spottswood will enroll at UNC Chapel Hill to major in mass communications. “My position on the team is Outreach Captain, where I manage all public relations, award submissions and financials,” Spottswood says. “My work on the team, specifically through marketing and writing articles, has built the foundational skills I need to become a journalist. The experience taught me teamwork, leadership, time management and other essential skills. Even when not focusing on engineering, there is so much to gain from FIRST robotics programs, and I wouldn't be where I am today without it,” he says.
 
Dougherty, a member of the Johnston County Economic Development Advisory Committee, says NCRI is an exciting workforce readiness resource for the county. “It’s going to help catch a kid’s eye,” he says. Equipping local students with robotics expertise will be important to manufacturers of all kinds – from food companies like VeeTee to biomanufacturers like Novo Nordisk and Grifols. NCRI meshes well with a similar program at Johnston Community College, which is linked to the college’s new Associates degrees in mechanical engineering. “All these things are pioneering, and we want Johnston County to lead that pioneering,” he says.
 
Tom White, director of the Economic Development Partnership at North Carolina State University, agrees. White recently toured NCRI as part of a half-day visit to Johnston County. “Frankly, the highlight of the afternoon for me was seeing all these amazing youngsters programming and operating robots in a quasi-manufacturing setting under the tutelage of the instructors,” White says. Numerous N.C. State alumni were among the teachers and coaches he recalls meeting at NCRI, which he describes as a potential model that other communities might replicate to ready their manufacturing sector for next-generation opportunities.


“Manufacturing is more and more automated, and robotics is a huge part of that,” White says. “Programs like NCRI fit really well into the direction that the state’s manufacturers are taking, and with a workforce already aligned with that trend, North Carolina will be in a more competitive position.”
 
NCRI’s Brindle says the facility intends to be active year-round. “We’ll do two off-season events,” he says. “It gives kids a chance to do something over the summer.” Included are summer robotics camps for kids of all ages. It’s not uncommon that one-time program participants return to the space over the summer to direct campers. “About 75 percent of our alumni come back as mentors and coaches when they’re in the area,” Brindle says. The next competition cycle begins in September, when the space hosts a scrimmage. Brindle continues to work with Dougherty and others in spreading NCRI’s message to employers in the community. “Developing partnerships with local tech businesses is one of our next steps,” he says. “We want to make this a workforce development space.”
 
The Johnston County Economic Development Office (JCEDO) facilitates value-added interaction between government, education and the private sector in encouraging and promoting job creation and economic investment in Johnston County. A unit of county government, JCEDO collaborates with local, regional and statewide partners and allies in providing confidential location assistance to businesses and technical support to the county’s 11 municipalities. Its menu of services includes customized digital mapping, labor and wage analysis, site readiness assistance and incentive packaging. For additional information, visit www.GrowWithJoCo.com

High School Space Crunch Yields Opportunities for Robot-Savvy Workers