WBL
Work-Based Learning Internship
A structured internship aligned with NYC DOE Work-Based Learning (WBL) experiences, delivered with external partners. Participants build workplace readiness by supporting STEM instruction and program operations, collaborating with professionals, and producing real deliverables (curriculum, events, or project work).
FRC
FIRST Robotics Competition
High school students take on a college-level engineering challenge by building full-scale industrial robots alongside professional mentors. The STEM Center supports FRC with fabrication capacity, prototyping space, and technical resources to test, iterate, and prepare for competition.
FTC
FIRST Tech Challenge
High school teams design, build, and program competitive robots using Java. The STEM Center provides an FTC competition field for practice, fabrication resources for custom parts, and collaborative workspace for design, strategy, and iteration throughout the season.
XRP
Experiential Robotics Platform
Hands-on workshops using the Experiential Robotics Platform (XRP), a compact, low-cost robot for teaching robotics and programming. Students code with WPILib (the same tooling used in FIRST Robotics Competition) and practice building, testing, and iteration at the STEM Center. Delivered in collaboration with Bloomberg engineers, the program builds fundamentals that transfer to FTC/FRC.
SYEP
Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) Internship
A paid internship placement through NYC DYCD’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) at the STEM Center for NYC FIRST students and alumni (ages 16–24). Interns build professional skills by supporting workshops and educators, creating activities/lesson plans, and applying robotics experience in a real workplace team.
CBC
Credit-Bearing Class
A DOE credit-bearing high school course that builds a competitive FTC team. Co-taught by a DOE teacher and STEM Center staff: fall focuses on physical computing and core skills, and spring on advanced projects, strategy, and competition preparation.
FLL
FIRST LEGO League
Elementary and middle school teams design, build, and program LEGO robots to solve real-world challenges. The STEM Center supports FLL with hands-on build and coding workshops, design feedback, and prototyping/fabrication help for Innovation Project ideas.
