Meet the 2024 NFPA Robotics Challenge Scholarship Winner – Evan Tan

Evan Tan of Conway, AR is the winner of the 2024 NFPA Robotics Challenge Scholarship. The scholarship program received strong applications from students across the country who used pneumatics in robotics competitions.

The NFPA member judges who interviewed Evan were impressed by his understanding of pneumatics, passion for engineering, and service involvement in his community. Evan will be using the scholarship to pursue a Mechanical Engineering degree at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR.

Evan’s first introduction to robotics was through LEGO MINDSTORMS, and grew his interest through watching BattleBots. He joined his VEX Robotics team in 2021. All students on the team during the 2021 season had graduated, so he had to build the program back up with his peers. After the 2022 season, the team researched whether pneumatics would be important. They came to the conclusion that it would level up their performance and increase their successes, so they incorporated multiple pneumatics systems in 2023 and 2024. Evan was introduced to the NFPA at the 2024 VEX Robotics World Championship competition in Dallas, TX.

On top of robotics, Evan volunteers with his church’s AV program, supports summer camp programs at the Museum of Discovery, and competes in Esports.

For Evan, Esports has become a way to have fun and be competitive by integrating his academic and personal interests. He got involved in Esports by way of an upperclassman who told him that the game Rocket League is one of the best ways to learn how to drive their robot. In Rocket League timing and input commands are essential to success, as well as predicting the movement of your opponent. Evan affirms that Rocket League was transferrable to driving their VEX competition robot.

Evan is grateful to the scholarship committee for awarding him the scholarship, and for the opportunity to be part of the NFPA network. In the future, Evan sees himself working with fluid power technologies in the military or aerospace industries.

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The NFPA Education and Technology Foundation awards $30,000 ($7,500 per year for four years) to one graduating high school senior through the Robotics Challenge Scholarship program. A minimum GPA of 3.0 out of 4.0, 1,000-word essay, letter of recommendation, and use of pneumatics in their FIRST or VEX competition robot are required from each applicant. The money awarded is used to study fluid power relevant degree programs at any accredited college or university in the United States. The NFPA Foundation’s goal is to build awareness of fluid power benefits and careers among high school students.

One way NFPA members can get involved with scholarship programs is to volunteer as a judge to serve on the application review committee or mentor a robotics team as they work towards incorporating pneumatics in their designs. This year 23 judges from 15 NFPA member companies reviewed 65 student applications to the Robotics Challenge Scholarship program. If you are interested in learning more, please contact Haley Nemeth at hnemeth@nfpa.com.