GREEN BAY (NBC26) — Students from around the state are in Green Bay this weekend, competing in the VEX Robotics State Championship at the Resch Expo Center.
In the pits, students test, tune, and discuss their strategy as one of the biggest meets of the year takes place.
Ron Lohse is an officer with Fox Valley Competitive Robotics, which runs the event.
Loshe has been involved in robotics in the state of Wisconsin for around 20 years and says it's changed a lot since he started.
"We went to worlds in 2010, which was the second world championship and there were 2,700 teams internationally," Lohse said. "This year it will be 35,000.”
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While the technical side of the robots can be challenging for beginners, Lohse says it goes beyond more than that.
"I’ve seen what it’s done for kids. I've seen little elementary kids learn how to talk to adults, you know, learn how to program," Lohse said. "By the time they are seniors, they are leaders."
Winneconne High School senior Cody Tipler has been competing in robotics since he was in third grade and is in his tenth year of competition.
He says robotics helped hone his passion and what he ultimately will go to school for.
"Back in elementary school, we decided that everybody gets to do a little bit of everything," Tipler said. "Just to figure out what we like, and that is when I began having an interest in programming.”
Tipler also says the being a part of a team and qualifying for the world championship a couple years ago was a very cool experience.
"This community is world wide," Tipler said. "It's cool to see all these other teams with different robot designs that are unique to their own country.”
When all is said and done, at the end of the tournament, 10 high school teams and three middle school teams will qualify for the next round.
That next round is the world championship, which will take place in St. Louis, Missouri, where over 100 countries from across the world will compete.
