Teens Battle For Castle At Medieval-Themed Robotics Competition
Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter
IRVING (KRLD-AM) -- Some of the brightest high school students from across North Texas and around the world are taking part in a major robotics competition in Irving.
It's the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Dallas Regional robotics competition, and 43 teams are taking part. Some are in town from as far away as China and Brazil.
FIRST Director Bob Shellene says teamwork is essential in the competition.
"They're crossing a huge gamut of different skills, from computer engineering, softaware programming, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering," says Shellene.
The challenge has a medieval theme: Get the robots to break through barriers, throw boulders through the towers of the opposing alliance, and finally scale the walls of the towers to capture the towers.
Rockwall High School sophomore Jillian Weaver, 16, says teamwork is essential.
"There's a really big team aspect of it," Weaver says, "and so it's a lot of working with your team and working with other people and working within your community to do one goal."
Oscar Salinas, 18, attends Emmitt J. Conrad High School in Dallas. He says he's proud of the robot he helped build.
"We have two bunny ears sticking out at the top of the robot," Salinas says, "so they just flap around during the competition, and it's really fun to watch."
Salinas says he appreciates the teamwork aspect, as well as the mentoring.
"The most fun is the experience that we gain from actually working with the robot and along with people who are already engineers," Salinas says.
The competition is put on with the help of several corporate sponsors, including Lockheed Martin and Texas Instruments.
Peter Balyta, the president of Texas Instruments' education technology division, is one of the judges of the competiton. He says the competition goes far beyond the robots.
"Clearly we're looking at the robots," Balyta says, "but much more than the robots, what are they doing for the community? What are they doing for outreach to other schools in their district? How are they spreading their passion of robotics around the community?"
Balyta says the company is more than happy to be a part of the competition.
"We're not only supporting it, but we also have many of our TI employees mentoring, actively engaged on many of the teams that are actually here today," Balyta says.
(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)