Dream it, do it - teen robotics and the future of work

Host Sophia Layne heads to the inaugural FIRST Robotics California Northern State Championship for a front-row seat at one of the most energizing things happening on the Coastside — and possibly one of the most under the radar.

This episode follows the Pumpkin Bots, Half Moon Bay's own teen robotics team, as they compete against some of the most well-resourced schools and programs in Silicon Valley — and hold their own.

Sophia sits down with Franz Dill, the team's lead mentor and a robotics engineer at J&J MedTech, to talk about what it really takes to build a winning team — and why celebrating failure might be one of the most important lessons these kids are learning. Mentor Steve Patton pulls back the curtain on how a scrappy, community-supported team with a 3D printer competes with powerhouse programs — with a little creativity and, yes, a custom AI scouting tool built by one of their own students.

And we hear directly from the teens themselves — including the co-captain juggling outreach, strategy, and learning to code, the team photographer and social media manager, and the student who decided the team needed a mascot (and shoots hoops with their robot when he’s not doing so with his interscholastic high school basketball team…).

Along the way, Sophia reflects on the bigger picture: what this team represents at a moment when the future of work is shifting quickly, and what it might mean to make this kind of learning — expert-guided, hands-on, real-world — the norm rather than the exception.

Guest Franz Dill is a medical robotics engineer at Johnson & Johnson and lead mentor of the Pumpkin Bots. Franz is also, in his spare time, an ultra marathon runner. Guest Steve Patton, a structural engineer by trade, is also a mentor with the Pumpkin Bots; he grew up on the HMB Coastside.

Host Sophia Layne is a public advocate, long-time Coastsider, nature-lover, and mom. She's a former director in the biomedical industry and has served on her local school board and with county- and statewide public education advocacy organizations, and is founder of Bright Now Media.