Matt Aposhian, COO of FireFly Automatix, is conducting a tour of the company’s warehouse in the industrialized part of the valley. In addition to showing off the impressive lineup of Firefly’s automated sod harvesters and driverless lawnmowers, he’s also pointing out the tens of thousands of parts that are fabricated, molded, welded, shaped, cut, bolted and painted right here on the premises to put the machines together.
When FireFly says its products are made in Utah, it means made in Utah.
“Steel and electronics come in one door,” says Matt, “fully functioning machines go out the other side.”
All of it a testament to the unlimited ingenuity of the human mind.
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That and the age-old desire to get out of work.
“Our engineers joke around,” Matt says. “They say they’re inherently lazy so they think of ways to do things easier.”
Then he adds, “It would’ve been nice to have all this around when I was a kid.”
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When the Aposhian kids — Matt’s three brothers and two sisters — were growing up, their father, Lawrence, ran a sod farm. Besides putting a roof over their heads and food on the table, the farm made sure the siblings were no strangers to manual labor. When the cut sod rolled off the conveyor belt, they were the ones who got to get down on their hands and knees to lift it and stack it.
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“Those weren’t what I’d call the fun days,” says Matt, “but our parents were honorable people who taught us to work hard. They instilled that work ethic and an entrepreneurial spirit in us from a very young age. I think that has a lot to do with what’s happened.”
What’s happened is the invention and production of sod harvesters and lawnmowers that have taken the robotic age by storm.
The company’s automated harvesters — capable of turning what used to be a four-man operation into one driver sitting in a heated or air-conditioned cab listening to Spotify — can be found all over the U.S. and around the world, including as far away as China and South Africa.
Tanner Dixon, mechanical engineer, works on the cutting unit of a fully autonomous lawn mower at FireFly Automatix in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News
And its eagerly anticipated, just-released fully electric robotic lawnmowers — requiring no driver — have already been ordered by sod farms and golf courses.
It all goes back to the day about 16 years ago when Steve Aposhian, Matt’s older brother, decided he could make a better robotic arm than the one that kept breaking on the early self-stacking harvester Lawrence had bought for his sod farm.
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Steve is the family engineer. When Steve was a teenager, Matt remembers him rigging up a motor from an electric race car to the blinds in his bedroom so he didn’t have to get out of bed to open and close the blinds.
Steve recruited a friend and fellow engineer, Will Decker, to redesign the robotic arm that kept breaking. When their version proved unbreakable, they decided to see if other sod farms might like to purchase something that was better than the original equipment.
When the response was “yes,” Steve and Will, along with another engineer friend, Eric Aston, and Matt Aposhian and his younger brother Dan formed a company they called FireFly. They set up their headquarters on Lawrence’s farm.
Then they set their sights even higher.
Lawrence Aposhian remembers the initial exchange he had with his son Steve.
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“He said, ‘I want to build an entire harvester from the ground up.’ I said, ‘Well, go ahead.’ So he got his engineer buddies, they sat in my office, got on my computer, and started designing this sod harvester. At night they went into my shop, got the steel and started fabricating.”
Steve, Will and Eric recruited Sam Drake, the professor who taught them engineering at the University of Utah, to help.
In less than a year — quick work even by Elon Musk standards — they had created what Lawrence calls “this remarkable thing.”
Horizon Turf Farms, a huge sod operation in Texas, bought the first FireFly harvester; then bought 17 more.
FireFly moved out of Lawrence’s farm into a spacious warehouse and in the 12 years since, as the company has grown to 190 employees (including 30 engineers), more than 600 fully completed FireFly ProSlab harvesters have rolled out the door. Currently, the company is selling about 110 harvesters a year.
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The success of the harvesters led to the six years of thinking, tinkering and fabricating that produced the just-released AMP — Autonomous Mowing Platform.
That’s a fancy way of saying a lawnmower that mows by itself.
“There’s nothing like it in the world,” says Matt. “With it being fully electric and fully autonomous, it does some things nobody else can do right now.”
Not only is a driverless 100-inch wide mower attractive to sod farms — where grass is cut as often as three times a week — but also to other places with large expanses of grass such as golf courses — a market Matt sees as the AMP’s future. There are 38,000 golf courses in the world, he points out. With a lawnmower that needs no driver, no gas and makes no noise, golf courses can mow their lawns early and late, not pollute the air and not wake anyone up. (You can see a video of the AMP in action at fireflyautomatix.com/amp-mowers/.)
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As Matt concludes our warehouse tour, making sure photographer Laura Seitz hasn’t taken any photos that might give away intellectual property (FireFly is home to more than six dozen current and pending patents), he surveys an assembly line Henry Ford would be proud of and an engineering laboratory right out of Thomas Edison’s playbook.
Hearkening back to his boyhood, he sums up in a sentence what the Aposhians and their engineer friends have wrought.
“We took what were the worst jobs on the sod farm,” he says, “now they’re the best.”
The autonomy controller and battery box of a fully autonomous lawn mower are pictured at FireFly Automatix in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News
On May 5, 2025, nearly 80 students, researchers, and professionals gathered at the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) for the inaugural Utah SciComm Symposium – an event designed to empower scientists to communicate their work with clarity, creativity, and relevance. Supported by the Research!America Civic Science Microgrant, this event provided a platform for showcasing innovative science communication and fostering dialogue between disciplines and communities. While scientific rigor is essential, the true impact of research depends on how effectively we share it.
The Utah SciComm Symposium brought together voices from academia, government, and journalism. Julie Kiefer, PhD, shared insights from her work at University of Utah Health, emphasizing the power of connection in making science matter. Atim Enyenihi, PhD, offered a policy and industry lens, reminding attendees that the messenger’s identity shapes how science is received. Matthew LaPlante, PhD, drove the message home: “The challenge of science communication is not one of ‘dumbing things down,’ but rather ‘bridging our brilliances.’”
Nearly 80 students, researchers, and professionals gathered at the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) for the inaugural Utah SciComm Symposium.
Following these talks, we hosted an Ask Me Anything (AMA) panel, where audience members submitted anonymous questions on topics ranging from career pathways in science communication to overcoming burnout, navigating misinformation, and rekindling a sense of wonder in research. This open dialogue created a space for candid conversations, making the event feel more like a community exchange than a traditional lecture series.
A centerpiece of the symposium was the SciComm Hackathon Finalist Presentations, where six graduate students showcased creative projects – including comics, visual storytelling pieces, an animated lecture, and a short-form video designed for social media – that translated their complex research for broader audiences. These projects were the result of months of dedicated work, as students developed and refined their materials with feedback from our expert judging panel and media consultant, Julie Callahan. Julie’s experience in multimedia graphics and public outreach was instrumental in helping students shape their ideas into compelling stories. More than just a showcase of scientific expertise, these projects reflected a shared commitment to storytelling, accessibility, and meaningful public engagement.
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“Science communication serves as a bridge between the public and trust in science,” said Kiefer. “Without it, knowledge stays in labs and datasets, when it should be changing minds and changing lives. I’m excited to see so many talented young scientists who are passionate about explaining science and its impacts in creative ways.”
Beyond presentations, the symposium featured interactive science activities led by Utah Brain Awareness Week members from the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Utah. Attendees had the rare opportunity to hold real human brains, learning fascinating facts about brain structure and function, while the concussion goggles module allowed participants to experience the disorienting effects of mild to severe brain injuries. By testing their motor skills through this simulated “patient” lens, attendees also gained a deeper appreciation for the importance of protecting the brain from injury.
Nearly 80 students, researchers, and professionals gathered at the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) for the inaugural Utah SciComm Symposium .
The event’s design reflected the ethos of public engagement: breaking down barriers between science and society through conversation, creativity, and shared curiosity. The Utah SciComm Symposium wasn’t just about presenting research – it was about creating a culture of communication, where storytelling and public engagement are seen as essential components of scientific practice. In an era where misinformation and polarization threaten scientific trust, equipping researchers with these skills is a necessity. By fostering a culture of science communication, we aim to build a more informed, engaged, and connected community.
Utah families need more support for affordable childcare
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) A child holds up a sign during a rally to demand funding for childcare at the Capitol in May 2024.
By The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board
| May 18, 2025, 12:03 p.m.
Utah’s political leaders say they like economic growth. They also say they like strong families.
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But it is all so much talk unless our state’s political and business leaders do more — a lot more — to ensure affordable childcare services are available to more Utah families.
It is not necessary to care at all about the woes of individual families, about parents (mostly mothers) who have to leave college or vocational training before they finish, who have to quit their jobs or give up career advancements, all because they can’t find or afford adequate childcare.
A dollars-and-cents view of the problem shows what the Utah economy is losing because it lacks this vital part of a community’s basic infrastructure.
A 2022 survey published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation — working with United Way of Salt Lake, Voices of Utah Children and the Salt Lake Chamber — was titled “Untapped Potential.” That’s because it measured what Utah loses due to inadequate child care availability.
According to the survey, the overall Utah economy loses $1.36 billion a year because of lost productivity, employee absenteeism and turnover, abandoned careers, degrees or certificates not completed. The state also comes up some $256 million short in annual tax revenues.
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And that’s not counting the human cost of dreams delayed or abandoned, of children left in unlicensed, inadequate, even dangerous, facilities.
There was some federal and state money put up to assist childcare providers and customers during and immediately after the coronavirus pandemic. It helped.
But that flow of funds has been running out, and a new administration that prides itself on randomly cutting large amounts out of the nation’s social and educational budgets is only going to make things worse.
Utah’s political, business and religious leaders need to step up.
Larger employers should see the benefits of offering on-site childcare facilities, where parents will be more likely to get to work on time and strengthen parental bonds by being able check in on their children during the day. Smaller employers can prioritize flexibility for parents, in a number of creative ways. Churches with spaces that go unused during the week, and school districts that have downsized, should provide room for care centers.
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The state should be more aggressive in providing subsidies, tax credits and other incentives to make childcare affordable for families and working in the field a desirable career. And we need a solution for the untenable cost of liability insurance, which is a massive problem for daycare centers.
It will cost money. But it will cost a lot less than $1.36 billion.
Editorials represent the opinions of The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom.
Kyle Whittingham and his Utah football coaching staff have been very busy out on the recruiting trails this spring, arranging visits and extending offers to some of the top high school football players in the country.
The third weekend of June is shaping up to be a big one for the Utes, as several star-studded prospects are set to make their way out to Salt Lake City for official visits.
Fort Bend Marshall High School (Texas) product Isaiah Williams recently added his name to the list of recruits who’ll descend upon Utah’s campus from June 20-22. Williams confirmed the visit on social media Saturday.
Williams is a 6-foot-1, 190-pound recruit from Missouri City, Texas. He’s ranked by Rivals as a four-star recruit and the No. 10 cornerback prospect in the class of 2026, while 247Sports Composite and On3’s databases have him listed as a three-star and top-50 safety in the country.
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Williams holds over 30 scholarship offers from schools in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC. Texas, which has hosted him on a handful of visits already, is currently Rivals’ frontrunner to land a commitment. The Longhorns were listed in Williams’ top five that was released in October, along with Oklahoma, Ohio State, Missouri and LSU, though his recruitment process remains open.
According to MaxPreps, Williams had 56 tackles, including 33 solos, and one interception as a junior in 2024.
So far, the Utes’ 2026 recruiting class features three-star tight end Colby Simpson and three-star edge rusher Preston Pitts. RJ Mosley, a 6-foot-4 wide receiver from Pittsburg High School (California), is set to visit the Utes during a very important recruiting weekend for Whittingham and company. In addition to Mosley, Utah will host three-stars Gavin Day, Mataalii Benjamin, Sean Morris, Perrion Williams and Jaden Vaughn on June 20, according to 247Sports. Three-star cornerback Mason Lewis is also slated to visit that weekend.
