The California Region 3 Vex State Championships kicked off at Cal Poly Saturday.
Over 100 high and middle school students from over 70 schools through Central California competed head-to-head in matches that involve technical design, computer coding, and driving skills.
Teams of students spent months working on the little robots to compete in this championship, Maliha Hossain, Chair of Cal Poly Society of Women Engineers and event organizer said.
"They (the students) have a design notebook, go through the engineering process, program these robots and work together to get them here," said Hossain.
The theme of this year's championship is "Spin Up". Each team creates a robot that can maneuver on a 12-by12-foot field, moving around various objects, to score points, according to event organizers.
Four teams will qualify for the Vex Robotics World Championship that will be held in Dallas in April, including the tournament champion; the Excellence Award winner; the Robot Skills Champion; and the Judges Award recipient.
Vex robotics Competition is the largest and fastest-growing middle school and high school robotics program globally.
