MakeShift Presents BOOST Award to FRC Team 10015 Bubbles at the 2025 FIRST Championship
At the 2025 FIRST Championship in Houston, FRC Team 4039 MakeShift presented its BOOST Award to rookie FRC Team 10015 Bubbles, recognizing the Aurora team’s rapid growth, student-led engineering, strong potential, and commitment to the FIRST community (Makeshift Instsgram).
By SolversMind Robotics
Published April 17, 2025 | Updated August 09, 2026
Reviewed by SolversMind Robotics mentors
Some recognition means even more when it comes directly from another FRC team.
On April 17, 2025, during the FIRST Championship at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, members of FRC Team 4039 MakeShift Robotics visited the pit of rookie FRC Team 10015 Bubbles and presented Bubbles with their team-created BOOST Award. Bubbles was competing in the Milstein Division during the April 16–19 Championship. FIRST Robotics Competition Events
For Bubbles, this was a very special moment.
MakeShift had supported our team from the beginning of our FRC journey. To receive recognition from an experienced Ontario team that had already helped guide us made the award feel different from a normal competition trophy.
It meant that a team we respected had watched our growth and believed we had something worth continuing.
What is the MakeShift BOOST Award and why did Bubbles receive it?
The MakeShift BOOST Award is a team-created recognition from FRC Team 4039 MakeShift Robotics designed to support another FRC team that shows strong potential. MakeShift explains in its FIRST Impact Award documentation that the initiative directs a percentage of team revenue to an FRC team with potential, making the award both recognition and practical support for another team’s continued development. FIRST In 2025, MakeShift selected rookie FRC Team 10015 Bubbles after watching the team’s rapid growth, student ownership, engineering progress, and first-year journey. MakeShift later publicly congratulated Bubbles for winning that year’s BOOST Award and described the team as having an “amazing rookie season.” Instagram Receiving the award at the FIRST Championship in Houston was especially meaningful because MakeShift had been one of Bubbles’ earliest mentor teams and understood how far the students had progressed.
Why did recognition from MakeShift mean so much to Bubbles?
MakeShift is not simply another Ontario FRC team to us.
From the beginning, they were one of the teams Bubbles looked toward for guidance.
MakeShift describes its own mission around developing student problem-solvers, building competitive student-built robots, expanding access to FIRST, mentoring other teams, operating a shared practice field, and strengthening the robotics ecosystem around Hamilton. Its documented outreach has included supporting FLL, FTC, and FRC teams and creating opportunities for newer teams to grow. FIRST
That history is why the BOOST Award carried so much weight for our students.
Bubbles entered FRC as a completely new team in 2025. Many of our students had years of FIRST LEGO League experience, but a full-size FRC robot brought a completely different level of engineering complexity.
During the season, the students had to learn mechanical fabrication, electronics, advanced programming, competition strategy, pit operation, scouting, and the rhythm of an FRC event.
They also tried something unusual.
Our rookie robot, OctoMaster, featured the student-developed SpiRob bio-inspired, 3D-printed soft robotic arm, reflecting the willingness of a young team to experiment rather than simply follow the safest design.
By the time Bubbles reached Houston, the team had already won the Rookie All-Star Award and an event championship at the Ontario District Newmarket Event, earning its place on the world stage. FIRST’s official records show Bubbles competing in the 75-team Milstein Division at the Championship. The Blue Alliance
But the BOOST Award recognized something different.
It recognized potential.
For a young team, that message matters enormously.
How does the BOOST Award reflect the FRC community?
One of the most powerful things about FIRST Robotics Competition is that teams can be competitors and mentors at the same time.
MakeShift’s BOOST Award is a strong example.
Instead of using all of its resources only for its own competitive advantage, MakeShift intentionally sets aside support for another FRC team it believes can grow. Its own Impact Award documentation describes the BOOST Award as part of a broader effort to assist, mentor, and strengthen other FIRST teams. FIRST
That philosophy has influenced Bubbles.
Our team benefited from experienced teams answering questions, opening their facilities, reviewing our designs, sharing competition knowledge, and simply encouraging our students when FRC still felt unfamiliar.
Those experiences taught us something important:
A strong FRC team should not only ask,
“How can we become better?”
It should eventually ask,
“Who can we help become better?”
That is the kind of team Bubbles wants to become.
As our students gain more experience, we want to support rookie teams, younger FIRST students, and other teams facing the same uncertainties that we experienced during our first season.
The help we received should not stop with us.
It should keep moving.
What did this moment represent at the FIRST Championship?
The setting made the award even more memorable.
Bubbles had arrived in Houston as a rookie team from Aurora, Ontario, surrounded by some of the most experienced FRC programs in the world. FIRST’s official event listing shows the Milstein Division included 75 teams from across the United States, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Australia, and other regions.
Then an experienced Ontario team walked into our pit to recognize our students.
There was no stage.
No formal judging room.
No scoreboard involved.
It was one FIRST team telling another:
We see what you are doing. Keep going.
That is why this award remains special to Bubbles.
The students were proud of what they had achieved, but receiving the BOOST Award reminded them that growth also creates responsibility.
Someone once helped us.
Someone believed in us.
Now we need to continue growing until we can provide that same boost to someone else.
SolversMind Robotics and FRC Team 10015 Bubbles are deeply grateful to FRC Team 4039 MakeShift Robotics for their mentorship, friendship, and recognition.
The BOOST Award did exactly what its name suggests.
It gave a young team another boost forward.
And we intend to pass that energy on.
Tags:
FRC Team 10015 Bubbles, MakeShift Robotics, FRC 4039, BOOST Award, FIRST Championship, Houston 2025, SolversMind Robotics, Aurora robotics, FRC mentorship, student ownership, FIRST community, rookie robotics team, Dahai Zhang