The world’s ecosystems sustain millions of diverse species. The 2025 theme of Eco Equilibrium challenged FIRST Global teams to protect this variety of life by exploring how to strike a balance between progress and preservation, utilizing technology to help restore biodiversity, protect ecosystems, and ensure a healthy, sustainable planet for generations to come.
For the ninth edition of the FIRST Global Challenge, teams united at the Panama Convention Center to compete under this theme and game title. In the game, six national teams worked together as part of a Global Alliance to restore healthy planet by removing barriers and maximizing biodiversity in three ecosystem. Teams then divided into two Regonal Alliances to secure protection into the future.
represented by 192 teams, including a team of refugees.
impacted around the world
including 52 female-majority or all-girl teams.
addressing sustainable ecosystems
In the Eco Equilibrium game, student teams navigate their robots through a richly diverse, simulated world to carefully restore habitats, maintain ecological balance, and protect vulnerable species, emphasizing the delicate systems that support our planet and the critical role innovation plays in their survival.
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These videos are subtitled in English, Español and Français.
—Dean Kamen
Teams not visible on the map: American Samoa; Cayman Islands; Cook Islands; Hong Kong, China; Hope (Refugees); Kiribati; Maldives; Marshall Islands; Tonga.
“FIRST Global matters because it connects robotics with real issues that our world is facing. Every year’s theme teaches us something meaningful about the challenges humanity must solve, and it inspires us to think critically and creatively. This year’s Eco Equilibrium theme really showed how important balance and sustainability are.“
—Female participant, Team Cambodia 2025
“FIRST Global impacted me in a way that I can’t even describe. I really feel like I can make a difference in my country, something that I never thought I’d be able to do… This was the best experience in my whole life.”
—Male participant, Team Guinea-Bissau 2025
“To me, robotics is a sport because it brings together the same elements we see in any high-level competition: strategy, teamwork, discipline, pressure, and the drive to improve every single day.”
—Male participant, Team Angola 2025
“FIRST Global really changed me and made me more confident in my skills… It also inspired me to think bigger about my future in engineering. It’s an experience that shaped who I am now.”
—Female participant, Team Kyrgyzstan 2025
Kenya’s innovation story is being rewritten by young minds shaping the future through technology. In this episode of Take on Tech, KBC follows Team Kenya at the FIRST Global Robotics Challenge 2025 in Panama, where over 190 countries competed under the theme Eco Equilibrium. Back......
The entrepreneur Roya Mahboob is building off-line apps, underground networks and a global robotics team to educate Afghan girls unable to attend school. Ms. Mahboob, 37, is now redoubling her efforts from abroad. She has reassembled the Afghan Dreamers, the all-girls robotics team she helped......
n October this year, five students from modest government schools packed their bags and boarded a flight to Panama City. They were on their way to represent India at the FIRST Global Challenge — an international robotics competition featuring teams from 193 countries. Their journey......
FIRST Global Founder and Chairperson of the FIRST Global Executive Board, Dean Kamen, and long-term FIRST Global mentor and supporter, Margaret Flowers, announce the creation of the Margaret and Woodie Flowers Mentorship Award. This award will be presented annually to an exemplary mentor of a…
This year we united in a country that connects continents and bridges oceans. For full insights into this amazing year, including statistics and stories, view our 2025 Impact Report.
Lam is a leading global supplier of semiconductor equipment and services that allow chipmakers to build smaller and better performing devices.
