Students from Yucaipa High are preparing to compete in a robotics competition at Cal State San Bernardino, March 28 to March 30, an event representative said Wednesday.
Brett Evrist, Vignesh Iyer and Zak Knight of Yucaipa High's T-Bird Tech robotics team have been working on their project since February with coach Stephanie Sharp, according to competition organizers FIRST - For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology - of Manchester, N.H.
The T-Brids are one of 48 teams registered for the competition as of March 20.
Local teams include Full Metal Kats from Henry J. Kaiser High School in Fontana, the ElectroJackets from Colton High School, Temp from Los Osos High School in Rancho Cucamonga, Robokong from Riverside, the Poly Techs from Poly High School in Riverside and "TBD" from Riverside.
Other teams that have registered to compete will come from communities including Indio, Temecula, Poway, San Diego, Studio City, La Cañada, Lancaster Tehachapi, and Dana Point.
The event is billed by FIRST as "the first high school robotics competition of its kind in the Inland Empire."
Teams will compete for honors "that reward design, competitive play, sportsmanship and community partnerships," according to FIRST.
The competition is an opportunity for students to apply and show what they've learned in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
"FIRST alumni are more likely to attend college, 90 percent reported learning practical and work-related skills and 89 percent reported increased self-confidence," according to competition organizers.
Competing teams are allowed six weeks to build robots from a kit of parts and instructions, according to FIRST.
"Teams compete by controlling their robots to score as many flying discs as possible into goals on the playing field," event organizers said. "Matches end with robots climbing pyramids in the middle of the field to score bonus points."
The event at Cal State San Bernardino will be free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.cafirst.org or www.usfirst.org. Sponsors of the event include J.C. Penney.
For a list of teams competing, visit www.usfirst.org/whats-going-on/event/9097/teams.
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