LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – 37 student robotics teams from 10 Nevada high schools competed at the Vex High School Robotics State Qualifier competition Saturday, held at Faith Lutheran High School.

“It’s like my favorite thing in the world,” said teen robotics competitor Aiden Blake. “It’s so exciting the strategy and the multiple layers that you think about constantly when you’re doing this.”

“This is our fifth or sixth iteration of this robot. We’ve been working on this for like 7 months now. You just have to be patient and understand that things are going to fail. It’s more important to learn what happens when you fail than to be upset,” said teen robotics competitor Felipe Furtado.

The game for the competition changes every year. This year, teams conquered feats of balance, movement and precision, facing off in a robot-controlled game called Over-Under with a ball and goal, kind of like robotics-soccer.

“It’s very student-centered,” said high school Robotics/Computer Science teacher Dan Kober. “So it’s an opportunity for the kids to explore their passions and kind of run with it. They take a lot of ownership of their robots, and they teach me things everyday.”

Through coding and competition, the student-engineers learn skills they can take from the robots world to the human world.

“There’s been a lot with this robot. A lot of quirks we needed to work out, and I think problem solving really correlates into the real world. For you not to get frustrated with one with and you working it out and making sure everything’s great and it works properly,” said teen robotics competitor Rhys Gallagher.

“I’ve learned how to use the design process in engineering, how to use CAD so I can design things on the computer,” said teen robotics competitor Isaac Linford. “You learn leadership, you learn how to have good sportsmanship. It’s really not about building and coding and driving a robot, it’s about everything. I really love it.”

Saturday’s winners will go to the state robotics competition, with a chance of competing at the world competition.

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