Over 450 student teams competed in an annual international robotics competition in Houston last weekend. Photo by Argenis Apolinario/FIRST

Adolescents from 40-plus countries convened in Houston to put their robotic skills to test at the annual FIRST Championship last week.

The massive robotics championship returned this year to the George R. Brown to conclude the 2021-22 season of the international program, which is aimed at preparing youth ages 12 to 18 for the future through various robotics challenges and competitions.

The theme of this year’s season was FIRST FORWARD, in which students were challenged to think of new ways to overcome transportation challenges, “from the shipment of packages in rural and urban areas, to disaster relief delivery and high-tech space transit,” according to a release from the STEM organization.

The season was sponsored by California-based semiconductor company Qualcomm and was inspired in part by the UN Sustainable Development Goal of building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and fostering innovation, according to the statement.

“I have met so many great students, volunteers, mentors, alumni, and sponsors who truly embody the FIRST mission and core Values," FIRST CEO Chris Moore says in a statement after the event. "People who strive to be gracious professionals who innovate, compete, and collaborate with equal energy. People who share our common passion for science and technology as a force for good with the world. The rewards of your efforts don’t stop at this event.”

Teams competed in final matches for FIRST's two major competitions.

In the FIRST Robotics Competition, which featured the RAPID REACT Game presented by Boeing, students were required to reimagine the future of his-speed transport with strict rules, limited resources, and time limits and using autonomous and driver-operated skills.

More than 3,200 teams competed during this game throughout the 2002 FIRST season and 454 teams advanced to the championship at the GRB. Team 1629 from Accident, Maryland, took home the top prize in this competition. Other teams from Austin, New York, Hawaii, Mexico, and Turkey were finalists.

In the FIRST Tech Challenge, teams were asked to think like engineers, building robots from reusables kits in the game FREIGHT FRENZY presented by Raytheon Technologies. Thousands of teams competed in this event throughout the season with 160 teams advancing to Houston. Team 8565 (the TechnicBots) from Plano won the top award.

A FIRST LEGO League challenge was also open to younger students, ages 4 to 16, and the championship. Also during the event, actress and director Gillian Jacobs accepted an award for the film "More Than Robots," which follows four teams as they prepare for the 2020 FIRST competition. The film premiered at SXSW last month and is featured on Disney+.

“I named this documentary ‘More Than Robots’ because as you all well know better than anyone, FIRST is about so much more than robots. I learned that it's about teamwork, compassion, friendship, learning new skills, and challenging yourself to do things you never dreamed you were capable of," Jacobs said at the event.

FIRST's 2022-23 season, dubbed FIRST ENERGIZE, will focus on innovative energy solutions. The season opens in May. Learn more here.

The theme of this year’s season was FIRST FORWARD, in which students were challenged to think of new ways to overcome transportation challenges. Photo by Argenis Apolinario/FIRST

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Houston doctor aims to revolutionize hearing aid industry with tiny implant

small but mighty

“What is the future of hearing aids?” That’s the question that led to a potential revolution.

“The current hearing aid market and technology is old, and there are little incremental improvements, but really no significant, radical new ideas, and I like to challenge the status quo,” says Dr. Ron Moses, an ENT specialist and surgeon at Houston Methodist.

Moses is the creator of NanoEar, which he calls “the world’s smallest hearing aid.” NanoEar is an implantable device that combines the invisibility of a micro-sized tympanostomy tube with more power—and a superior hearing experience—than the best behind-the-ear hearing aid.

“You put the NanoEar inside of the eardrum in an in-office procedure that takes literally five minutes,” Moses says.

As Moses explains, because of how the human cochlea is formed, its nerves break down over time. It’s simply an inevitability that if we live long enough, we will need hearing aids.

“The question is, ‘Are we going to all be satisfied with what exists?’” he asks.

Moses says that currently, only about 20 percent of patients who need hearing aids have them. That’s because of the combination of the stigma, the expense, and the hassle and discomfort associated with the hearing aids currently available on the market. That leaves 80 percent untapped among a population of 466 million people with hearing impairment, and more to come as our population ages. In a nearly $7 billion global market, that additional 80 percent could mean big money.

Moses initially patented a version of the invention in 2000, but says that it took finding the right team to incorporate as NanoEar. That took place in 2016, when he joined forces with cofounders Michael Moore and Willem Vermaat, now the company’s president and CFO, respectively. Moore is a mechanical engineer, while Vermaat is a “financial guru;” both are repeat entrepreneurs in the biotech space.

Today, NanoEar has nine active patents. The company’s technical advisors include “the genius behind developing the brains in this device,” Chris Salthouse; NASA battery engineer Will West; Dutch physicist and audiologist Joris Dirckx; and Daniel Spitz, a third-generation master watchmaker and the original guitarist for the famed metal band Anthrax.

The NanoEar concept has done proof-of-concept testing on both cadavers at the University of Antwerp and on chinchillas, which are excellent models for human hearing, at Tulane University. As part of the TMC Innovation Institute program in 2017, the NanoEar team met with FDA advisors, who told them that they might be eligible for an expedited pathway to approval.

Thus far, NanoEar has raised about $900,000 to get its nine patents and perform its proof-of-concept experiments. The next step is to build the prototype, but completing it will take $2.75 million of seed funding.

Despite the potential for making global change, Moses has said it’s been challenging to raise funds for his innovation.

“We're hoping to find that group of people or person who may want to hear their children or grandchildren better. They may want to join with others and bring a team of investors to offset that risk, to move this forward, because we already have a world-class team ready to go,” he says.

To that end, NanoEar has partnered with Austin-based Capital Factory to help with their raise. “I have reached out to their entire network and am getting a lot of interest, a lot of interest,” says Moses. “But in the end, of course, we need the money.”

It will likely, quite literally, be a sound investment in the future of how we all hear the next generation.

Houston VC funding surged in Q1 2025 to highest level in years, report says

by the numbers

First-quarter funding for Houston-area startups just hit its highest level since 2022, according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. But fundraising in subsequent quarters might not be as robust thanks to ongoing economic turmoil, the report warns.

In the first quarter of 2025, Houston-area startups raised $544.2 million in venture capital from investors, PitchBook-NVCA data shows. That compares with $263.5 million in Q1 2024 and $344.5 million in Q1 2023. For the first quarter of 2022, local startups nabbed $745.5 million in venture capital.

The Houston-area total for first-quarter VC funding this year fell well short of the sum for the Austin area (more than $3.3 billion) and Dallas-Fort Worth ($696.8 million), according to PitchBook-NVCA data.

While first-quarter 2025 funding for Houston-area startups got a boost, the number of VC deals declined versus the first quarters of 2024, 2023 and 2022. The PitchBook-NVCA Monitor reported 37 local VC deals in this year’s first quarter, compared with 45 during the same period in 2024, 53 in 2023, and 57 in 2022.

The PitchBook-NVCA report indicates fundraising figures for the Houston area, the Austin area, Dallas-Fort Worth and other markets might shrink in upcoming quarters.

“Should the latest iteration of tariffs stand, we expect significant pressure on fundraising and dealmaking in the near term as investors sit on the sidelines and wait for signs of market stabilization,” the report says.

Due to new trade tariffs and policy shifts, the chances of an upcoming rebound in the VC market have likely faded, says Nizar Tarhuni, executive vice president of research and market intelligence at PitchBook.

“These impacts amplify economic uncertainty and could further disrupt the private markets by complicating investment decisions, supply chains, exit windows, and portfolio strategies,” Tarhuni says. “While this may eventually lead to new domestic investment and create opportunities, the overall environment is facing volatility, hesitation, and structural change.”