Dana Henry of Agawam, Mass., founded Rosie Robotics (#839) after attending a robotics presentation at The Big E one fortuitous September. More than 25 years later, the club has positively impacted generations of students, and Henry has helped put Eastern States Exposition (ESE) on the map for engineers by making it the host site for the annual New England FIRST District Championship.
Henry originates from Lynn, Mass. He and his wife, Lynne, relocated to Agawam in 1982 when work for Hamilton Standard, now Collins Aerospace, called them to the western side of the state. He worked in Space Systems, manufacturing and engineering environmental control and life support systems for numerous NASA ventures, including the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS) and the Orion Capsule, which was most recently used on the Artemis 2 flight that took four astronauts around the moon.
“I get to say that I kept astronauts alive,” laughed Henry. “I worked on hardware for shuttles, space stations, Orion and more.”
In 2000, Henry visited The Big E with his son, Kyle, who had just begun his freshman year at Agawam High School. A robotics team from Enfield, Conn., Buzz Robotics (#175), had set up camp in the Young Building, and they were hosting a demonstration and presentation.
“They had a static display, some speakers and bleachers in a roped-off zone,” explained Henry. “They ran 5-8 team shows each day throughout the run of the Fair. People would form a line. When it was time, the crowd of about 150 people would find their places on the bleachers. The teams would run 1-2 matches for the audience, then they could get up and inspect the hardware up-close. They had a new crowd every 20 minutes.
“My son and I went in, listened to their speech and took a look,” he continued. “After the 20 minutes, we got up, walked out, took two lefts and watched it again. After the third time, he said, ‘Dad, we’ve got to start a team.’ I spoke to principals, teachers, city counselors and eventually John Burns, the head of technological education for Agawam Schools.”
In June of 2001, Burns and Henry connected, and Burns explained that he already had interest in beginning the program—he just needed someone at the helm, and Henry proved an ideal captain. They continued to meet throughout the summer and recruited curious students from Agawam High School and others that lived in town. Rosie Robotics was born at the start of September, a year after Dana and Kyle attended the Fair presentation.
“Fast forward to now,” said Henry, “and each team is built like a high-tech business that loses 25% of its laborers annually—that would be your graduating seniors each school year. In 2019, I sat down with a small team and Tim Garstka, Director of Sales at Eastern States, and we pitched the idea to have their facility host the NE FIRST championships. Since we could begin in 2022, we haven’t left since.”
When asked about the origin story of the team’s name, Henry let out a hearty chuckle.
“An early group was sitting around a conference table for a meeting,” he recounted. “One of the gals said, ‘What about Rosie from The Jetson’s?’ She meant the robot nanny the family had. We haven’t been contacted by Hanna-Barbera for copyright infringement, but we aren’t that popular yet.”
Henry retired from Hamilton Standard in 2023, and his role with FIRST Robotics grew from there.
“Then, I got involved in FIRST Robotics, where I became a senior mentor in charge of the state. I helped start up new teams, trained other leadership and scouted new venues—which brought me to Eastern States Exposition. I was even the senior robot inspector for New England and world championships for a number of years. I retired from that eventually, because it was very time consuming.”
Later students filled in the acronym, insisting that “ROSIE” stood for “Recognizing Outstanding Science Inspired Education.”
Though he’s taken a step back from his commitments to the broader FIRST organization, Henry remains steadfast to the group that started it all. He and his team secured enough points between their matches at Western New England University in Springfield, Mass., and the University of Vermont in Burlington, Verm., to qualify for the championships at ESE once again this year.
“This year, we were a bit too erratic,” Henry admitted. “We chased electric issues the whole weekend, so we didn’t make playoffs. Successes and failures are all part of the process, though. How you handle failures in more important than the wins—the only time we fail is when learning doesn’t happen.”
Henry believes firmly that time spent in Rosie Robotics—and the many other local clubs across Longmeadow, Springfield and beyond—equips young minds with the tools for successful careers. Following high school, his son, Kyle, earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, Mass. He has remained in the city and is enjoying a long career at General Electric, where he was most recently promoted to Rotorcraft and Turboprop Propulsion Engineering (RTPE) Military Platform Systems Leader at GE Aviation. Kyle’s wife, Krystal, works for GE Aerospace.
“If you count me; Kyle; my daughter, Meghan; and my granddaughter, Kylie, then you’ve got three generations of Rosie,” Henry reflected. “These clubs are an opportunity to expose the next generation to engineering and entrepreneurship. It gives children skills in time management, critical thinking and teamwork, because you can’t do this program solo. They take math, physics and science from the classroom and make real-life solutions to solve problems. They’ve got to do the math.
“It’s taking a student at whatever level they are at and working with engineers, marketers and others from the industry. We teach them to speak publicly, too. You can have the cure for cancer, but if you can’t communicate it to the people that will financially back you, then you have no cure. Rosie is dear to me, but their story repeats itself thousands of times across robotics clubs. Our kids become engineers, teachers and entrepreneurs. Pick a profession, and there is a FIRST kid in it now. I stay in touch with many.”
What began as a father-son trip to The Big E turned into a teachable moment that his since set up thousands of students for successful careers and delivered a major national competition to the Eastern States Exposition fairgrounds. For those at ESE that champion the organization’s educational mission, this is a tremendous win, regardless of whether Rosie Robotics brought home the gold this year. ESE extends congratulations to all the teams that advanced to the NE FIRST Robotics District Championship.
Interested in finding out what you could learn more about at Eastern States Exposition? Head to the events page on EasternStatesExposition.com to see what shows are coming up next, because it’s always showtime at ESE.