LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Student engineers from across the valley, the country and the world gathered at UNLV for the FIRST Robotics Competition Las Vegas Regional.
The students’ high tech skills and ingenuity were on display at the Thomas and Mack. They have spent months designing, building and programming their robots from scratch.
The robots will go head-to-head to prove which is most adept at various tasks.
Thursday was the practice round. Many teams spent the day making sure their creations were in peak condition for the competition.
One team is not associated with any single school. It’s made up of students around southern Nevada who don’t have a school team.
“We just knew that there are a lot of students who didn’t have access to a program at their school site,” said Jonathan Lazatin, lead technical director of Balikbayan Bots. “We have students driving in from all corners of Las Vegas, Henderson, even Boulder City. We have a family that drives out from Boulder City to come to us, and it kind of shows that there’s a need for something like this in Southern Nevada, and that we’re filling that need.”
One student said much of what she learns at the competition is applicable in other parts of life.
“Being able to work in those high pressure situations and being able to fix the bot and get it out there is, in general, a really good thing to have,” said Ellie Cruz, a Las Vegas student and member of Balikbayan Bots. “Because whether it’s school and you have a test or really just anything in life, being able to work in a high pressure situation, being able to use your imagination. If we don’t have a part, what are we going to do? We have to come up with a replacement. Something like that.”
The winner of the regional will go on to the FIRST Robotics Championship in Houston, Texas.
The Las Vegas regional runs through Saturday.
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