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High School Robotics Team Makes Connections, Displays Leadership at WEST

Team 5137, the Iron Kodiaks, demonstrates how investing in STEM programs fuels future thinkers.

The Iron Kodiaks visit WEST 2026 with their 2025 robot. Credit: Iron Kodiaks

WEST, the premier maritime conference co-hosted by AFCEA International and the U.S. Naval Institute, invites hundreds of defense technology companies and industry experts to exhibit their capabilities in the San Diego Convention Center every year. For the past two years, a high school robotics team has joined the mix to showcase the next generation of innovation.

Mission Hills High School’s FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team 5137, the Iron Kodiaks, is the recipient of an AFCEA San Diego grant and attended WEST 2026 to showcase its robot from the 2025 FRC game, REEFSCAPE. The team members drove their robot around and presented its two-stage elevator and arm functions to the WEST attendees, said Sierra Nguyen, co-captain and strategy leader for Team 5137.

“We get a lot of opportunities to show our robot in the competition sense, so we get to show, logistically, how it functions,” Nguyen shared. “But getting the opportunity to slow it down, go step by step and show how this works, the approach we want to take and the structure of how our team works is something that I think is really valuable.”

The Iron Kodiaks’ 2025 robot uses artificial intelligence vision for object recognition, and the students built a large language model that can recognize specific objects within the FRC game.

Jennifer Beckwith, Team 5137’s lead mentor, said the grant from AFCEA’s San Diego Chapter helps the team fund the supplies, materials and programs needed to build robots and other community outreach programs to get more students involved in STEM activities.

Beckwith, who has a mechanical engineering degree and 30 years of tech industry experience, emphasized that she is continually impressed by her students, who spend a minimum of 23 hours per week outside of school working on their robot.

“It was just so eye-opening for these kids to walk a trade show floor, and it was so eye-opening for the people attending WEST to walk past and see the robot,” Beckwith said, describing how people were blown away by the students only being in high school.

Beckwith said she’s grateful for the partnership with AFCEA and the opportunity they had to demonstrate what the team can do and how they can grow with AFCEA’s support.

Lauryn Krahenbuhl, captain of Team 5137, and Orion Ortiz, co-captain, both appreciated the opportunity to meet industry professionals and explore the different careers they can pursue in the future.

Ortiz said there seemed to be a booth that interested every member of the team, and Krahenbuhl enjoyed speaking with attendees about their journeys to the tech industry.

“What I was mostly excited to share is just how everything is student-led and student-built,” Krahenbuhl said. “I feel like that's a very rare thing that high schoolers get to do. They get to build these industry-level products, and it's really cool being able to see a robot that can extend up to 6 feet and be like, ‘Yeah, I was a part of that building process.’”

Students Lauryn K., Sierra N. and Zoe Z. (l-r) from Team 5137 speak with WEST 2026 attendees. Credit: Iron Kodiaks

The Iron Kodiaks are now in the middle of the FRC REBUILT season, so students have been designing and building a new robot for the past five weeks. This year presents new objectives, parameters and challenges, and the team’s robot reveal is this Friday.

Outside of the season’s competition, the Iron Kodiaks host fundraising events and a summer camp for younger students interested in STEM.

Krahenbuhl, who wants to be an elementary school teacher, would like the Iron Kodiaks to get more involved in mentoring younger generations through FIRST Lego League (FLL), a global STEM program for kids. She said Team 5137 students would have the chance to work with local elementary school students and build a strong sense of community, which is her favorite thing about being an Iron Kodiak.

“I feel like so many times, people who are a bit nerdy or geeky either tend to be put down, but here, they're just amplified. Come as you are, and people will accept you. That's just one of my favorite things,” she said. “You meet people from all over the world and from all different backgrounds, and you all just get to geek out over your favorite thing together.”

Ortiz, who is a senior this year, said he likes that the robotics program attracts students from different backgrounds because they bring unique perspectives to the table.

“It's not like other sports teams. There's no requirement to get in. You don't have to run the fastest, jump the highest or throw a ball the farthest,” Ortiz said. “It's open to everyone, and because of that, you get to meet a lot of really, really interesting people that you wouldn't have crossed paths with otherwise.”