Build smarter robots with plug-and-play edge AI. The NEPI Education Pilot runs with FIRST Robotics Washington, giving teams vision, automation, and onboard AI on free educational licensing with support included.
The NEPI Education Pilot is a partnership between Numurus and FIRST Robotics Washington. It puts NEPI, a plug-and-play edge AI and automation platform, into the hands of FIRST teams so students can add onboard AI to the robots they are already building.
It is built for coaches, mentors, and teachers who want their students working with real edge AI tooling rather than a simplified teaching version of it. NEPI acts as the software layer between robot hardware, sensors, AI models, and control logic, bringing everything into a single, unified interface.
The first cohort ran in summer 2026 with FIRST Robotics Washington. Numurus is continuing to work with FIRST WA beyond that first cohort, and the program is open to new teams.
NEPI makes edge AI and automation approachable, even if your team is new to AI.
Two team tracks, a designated student lead on every team, and a structured project with weekly contact from the Numurus engineering team.
The Anchor Team works most closely with Numurus and carries a paid student lead internship. That student owns the team's NEPI project end to end and takes the internship title on their record.
Each Builder Team designates one student lead. Builder Teams run on the same terms as the Anchor Team: free educational licensing, hardware provided, and direct engineer support.
The student lead is the spine of the program. Every lead follows the same path, which is what makes the projects comparable across teams and gives each student something concrete to show for it.
Install the platform, connect a first sensor, and get a model running on the robot.
Take one real capability from idea to working demonstration on the team's robot.
Bring blockers to the Numurus engineers who maintain the platform, every week.
Post progress and answers on the NEPI Discord and Discourse community.
Future Martians, FRC 9023, built an autonomous obstacle avoidance application on NEPI. The robot senses what is in front of it, decides, and steers around it, with the perception and the decision logic both running onboard.
That is a genuinely hard problem, and it is the kind of thing that normally sits out of reach for a student team because of everything you have to build before you can start: sensor integration, data plumbing, model deployment, and an automation layer to act on the output. NEPI ships those pieces, so the team's work went into the behavior itself rather than the scaffolding under it.
A team does not need a software specialist to reach this. The student lead drove the project with weekly access to Numurus engineers.
Full NEPI platform access, free, for every team in the program. Educational licensing with support included, not a time-limited trial.
This program runs with FIRST Robotics Washington and is open to registered FIRST teams.
With NEPI, teams go beyond manual control and basic sensing.
Deploy detection and tracking models that run onboard during a match, for object detection, tracking, and game-piece recognition.
Stream and visualize cameras with overlays for alignment, targeting, and debugging, during practice and during competition.
Trigger actions from vision or sensor input instead of constant driver input, and combine sensors, vision, and logic into repeatable routines.
Operate entirely onboard on platforms such as NVIDIA Jetson, alongside WPILib and your existing robot code rather than in place of it.
What FIRST teams ask before they start building on NEPI.
For coaches, mentors, and FIRST teams who want a place in the next cohort.
Tell us your team number, region, and who would take the student lead role. [PLACEHOLDER: next cohort timing]
Register your interestYou do not have to wait for a cohort to start. Install NEPI and walk a tutorial end to end with your students.
Get NEPI Browse tutorialsMeet other FIRST teams and the engineers who maintain the platform on Discord and the community forum.
Join Discord Community forumNumurus is continuing to work with FIRST Robotics Washington, and the program is open to new teams. Coaches and mentors can start here, or ask a question in the community first.