At Lam we're pairing human ingenuity with advanced mechatronics and automation to solve big challenges for our customers. That same spirit will be on display at the 2025 FIRST Global Challenge in Panama City, Oct 29-Nov 1, where students from nearly every nation will gather to design, build, and cooperate with robots to complete complex tasks. The connection is direct: cooperative robotics is the future that will power both a successful match on the field and progress in our industry.
In semiconductor manufacturing, nanometer‑scale outcomes depend on repeatability, precision, and safety at every step. That's why we launched Dextro™, the semiconductor industry's first collaborative robot, to work alongside our employees.
Operated by a fab technician or engineer, Dextro takes on tasks that are time‑consuming, hazardous, or error‑prone when done manually. This groundbreaking cobot delivers precision and consistency that improves first‑time‑right maintenance, reduces variability, and minimizes downtime. These are the same design principles FIRST Global teams practice: build reliable robots, program for consistency, and work as a team so performance is repeatable under pressure.
We have been proud to support FIRST Global with a multiyear, $10 million partnership from the Lam Foundation to encourage students worldwide to pursue science and engineering careers while putting their skills to the test to solve some of the biggest challenges facing society. To our Lam community, it's more than a donation, it's a partnership—more than 50 Lam employees volunteered their time to mentor teams around the world in preparation for this year’s event.
The competition includes the New Technology Challenge, where students can pitch their big ideas on how technology can be leveraged to solve real-world problems. It also includes the Robotics Challenge, where teams from each country collaborate to simulate how robotics can support a more sustainable planet.
The solutions our employees are driving with Dextro and the challenges students solve at FIRST Global both depend on the disciplines of rigorous controls, sensor‑guided feedback, smart software, and human‑robot collaboration. When students tune a drivetrain or refine autonomous code, they are learning the habits that underpin advanced automation for the fab.
That’s why our partnership with FIRST Global matters. Lam is investing in the next generation of global STEM talent that shares our Core Values of teamwork, agility, and achievement along with our shared purpose to unleash the power of innovation together for a better world. As students gather in Panama, we see our future colleagues. They are builders who understand the best results come when people and robots cooperate to solve complex challenges. At Lam, we’re proud to help them build the skills that will propel our industry and our society forward.
Steve Fine is the Chief Communications Officer for Lam Research