High school students from all over the country and even certain parts of the world are in town this weekend for the FIRST Robotics Competition Hub City Regional Event.
“This is a week one event, meaning it’s one of the first events in the country that will allow them to practice and gain time on field for other competitions,” said Chris Caddel, the Regional Director for FIRST Robotics Competition in West Texas.
All of the students are given a “mission” that they base their robots design around in order to contend in the competition. After receiving this mission they have only six weeks to build the robot.
“Every team is allotted six weeks and six weeks only, since the day you get your mission. On the first day we see the mission and all of us are blown away, like ‘oh my god this is impossible’ but by the next day we’ll hack together some wood, put a motor on it and see if it works to prove a concept,” said Nela Mohan, a high school junior from Colorado.
Several teams in the competition are from outside of the country including Turkey and Mexico, according to Caddel.
“Our trip was long, we spent 23 hours on our bus. This is my first year in the competition. I just thought it would be a great idea, but I never imagined it would go this far,” said Bladimer Mantey, a high school junior from Mexico.
The finals will be held tomorrow at the South Plains Fairgrounds starting around 3pm. Admission is free for the public to come and watch.
