Firewheel STEM Institute: Building Arizona's Next Generation of Engineers

By Kyle Macdonald, Chief Operating Officer, Silicon Oasis

Arizona's technology economy is expanding at a remarkable pace. Semiconductor manufacturers, aerospace companies, robotics firms, and software startups continue investing billions across the state. Yet behind every new fabrication plant or engineering breakthrough lies a more fundamental question: Who will build the workforce of tomorrow?

For more than three decades, Firewheel STEM Institute has quietly been helping answer that question.

Based in Chandler, Firewheel STEM Institute—formerly the Si Se Puede Foundation—has spent the last 30 years introducing thousands of Arizona students to engineering, robotics, manufacturing, and technology. Over the past five years, the organization has evolved into Firewheel STEM Institute, operating a 5,200-square-foot STEM center complete with classrooms, engineering labs, fabrication equipment, robotics testing space, and collaborative work areas. Today, the nonprofit serves more than 1,000 students annually with a small team of full-time staff, part-time employees, and dedicated volunteers.

The organization's story is closely tied to its CEO, Fredi Lajvardi.

Long before leading Firewheel, Lajvardi became nationally recognized as the robotics coach at Carl Hayden Community High School in Phoenix. In 2004, he coached a team of students—many from immigrant families with limited financial resources—to an unlikely victory over powerhouse universities, including MIT, at an international underwater robotics competition. That remarkable story inspired the 2015 feature film Spare Parts, starring George Lopez, Jamie Lee Curtis, Marisa Tomei, and Carlos PenaVega, bringing national attention to Arizona's growing STEM education movement.

Today, Firewheel carries that same philosophy forward: talent exists everywhere when students are given access to opportunity.

Unlike many STEM nonprofits that focus on occasional workshops, Firewheel has built a year-round ecosystem of engineering education. The organization hosts Arizona FIRST LEGO League tournaments in partnership with Microchip Technology, operates the National Underwater Robotics Challenge alongside Arizona State University, supports robotics teams across Arizona through its Beak Squad initiative, provides free access to fabrication equipment for robotics teams statewide, offers teacher certifications in 3D printing, and operates a mobile STEM laboratory that brings engineering experiences into communities across Arizona.

Its competitive track record is equally impressive.

Firewheel's Desert WAVE autonomous underwater robotics team has become one of the world's premier youth robotics programs. The team finished third in the world in 2019, second in 2020, first overall in the world in 2024, second in the world in 2025 while remaining the top U.S. team, and continued its strong international performance in 2026.

The organization's FIRST Robotics Competition team, Degrees of Freedom, has also established itself among Arizona's elite robotics programs. Since launching in 2017, the team has qualified for the FIRST World Championship every single year while earning multiple Regional Chairman's Awards, Regional Impact Awards, Arizona Robotics League championships, and the prestigious Engineering Inspiration Award at the 2024 World Championship.

Perhaps more important than trophies are the lives transformed along the way.

One example is Gaby, who joined Firewheel's robotics program as a high school freshman with no STEM background. Before joining, she had competed in beauty pageants rather than engineering competitions. Through Firewheel's mentorship, she became captain of a world championship robotics team, pursued an engineering degree, and now works on Apache helicopters at Boeing. Her story reflects the organization's broader mission of creating pathways into high-skilled careers for students who may never have imagined themselves becoming engineers.

That investment extends well beyond individual success stories. Since 2019, Firewheel has supported more than 100 high school robotics students and more than 55 collegiate underwater robotics students through sustained mentorship, engineering instruction, and weekly hands-on programming.

As Arizona continues to emerge as a national hub for semiconductors, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and artificial intelligence, conversations often focus on attracting major employers. Firewheel reminds us that building a technology ecosystem also requires investing in the people who will power it.

For more than 30 years, the organization has demonstrated that world-class engineering talent can be developed long before students enter college or the workforce. In doing so, Firewheel has become more than a STEM nonprofit—it has become one of Arizona's most important builders of the state's future innovation economy.