2025 F1 Australian Grand Prix

The Melbourne RoboCats have had a truly rewarding year, filled with impactful outreach and meaningful community engagement. We are incredibly grateful for the opportunities we’ve been given to share our passion for STEM and robotics.

From March 13th to 16th, 2024, Team 5648 – Melbourne RoboCats – proudly exhibited at the F1 Australian Grand Prix in the Innovation Hub. This high-profile event allowed us to showcase our robots, promote the Future of Females in STEM & Engineering, and raise awareness of FIRST programs to a broad and diverse audience.

From March 13th to 16th, 2024, Team 5648 – Melbourne RoboCats – proudly exhibited at the F1 Australian Grand Prix in the Innovation Hub. This high-profile event allowed us to showcase our robots, promote the Future of Females in STEM & Engineering, and raise awareness of FIRST programs to a broad and diverse audience.

Over the course of the event, the Melbourne RoboCats engaged with more than 450,000 patrons, including children, families, and STEM enthusiasts. We inspired young people to get involved in FIRST Robotics and encouraged girls to explore STEM pathways—inviting many to join Melbourne RoboCats. This outreach also opened doors to industry collaboration, connecting us with partners from space, innovation, and university sectors. As a result, we successfully recruited new team members and welcomed new mentors through these professional networks.

On Day 1 of the F1 AusGP, RoboCats was on the main stage, showcasing the power of youth in STEM through FIRST and performing live robot demonstrations.
On Finals Day of the F1 AusGP, the team had the exclusive opportunity to tour the F1 paddock, meeting engineers, drivers, and team principals from various racing teams—an inspiring experience that deepened their connection to the world of high-performance engineering.

Please see their comments ” … You did it!! Congratulations on activating in the Innovation Hub at the FORMULA 1 LOUIS VUITTON AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2025.

Be very proud of yourself as over the 4 days and 4 seasons, your team has accomplished activating at an international event with over 20,000 students and 460,000 motorsport fans across the weekend.
… we want to say thank you for the past couple of months and all of the hard work your team put in to make sure your activation was amazing. We have had amazing engagement and feedback from the public, AGPC staff members and the Formula 1.”

2024 F1 Australian Grand Prix

The Melbourne RoboCats Team met with the McLaren Team and both of their two Drivers – Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.  The energy was alive and contagious, with our RoboCats Team and our Drivers teaching the Drivers of McLaren how to drive Phoenix (our robot), detailed discussions about the Engineering design and build concepts used by both F1 and Melbourne RoboCats. 

The event was very successful with a lot of coverage taken by the Netflix series Formula 1 Drive to Survive and Channel 10.

The AGPC were very impressed and happy with the feedback from McLaren Team and their Drivers – Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

” … we are thrilled you enjoyed it and honestly you should be so proud of the girls – they conducted themselves so wonderfully. They were the perfect balance of excited and high energy but also amazing knowledge and bright shining beacons of women in STEM!!“

2024 EduTech Expo

The RoboCats Team were invited to exhibit at the EduTech Expo which is Australia’s premier event for education and EdTech, to showcase young women in STEM by FIRST Australia.  The EduTech Expo was held part of the National Science Week Australia wide, and was supported by the Victorian Department of Education, to enhance education in Australasia, and annually attracting 10,000-15,000 attendees, making it one of the world’s largest education conferences. Since its 2011 Sydney launch, EduTech has expanded globally, with events in Singapore, the Philippines, Dubai, Johannesburg, and London, reaching over 50,000 educators yearly.

The RoboCats team was asked to come to reach out to the wider STEM, Education and Technology organisations in Australia, showcasing young women in STEM, and the amazing Robots that Melbourne RoboCats design and build year-in-year-out, with having our robot Phoenix, performing its functions.

FIRST Lego League – Richmond Regionals

The RoboCats team members and mentors all volunteer at many FLL Regional and National events through each year.

Workshops

At Melbourne RoboCats, we aim to make STEAM more accessible to young girls regardless of their background or any prior experience.  The workshops that we conduct at Melbourne RoboCats aims to promote STEM skills through schools and wider communities, where young girls attend our workshops, and join the team for the new build season each year.  Through this method we usually get a few new students each year.

The team, along with our industry mentors also participated in Maker Faire events at Monash University to promote and engage the wider community about STEAM and showcase the opportunities young girls with a passion for STEM have.