HUNTINGTON - They might just look like robots stacking cones, but they are really part of a government ploy - to encourage kids to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
NASA's Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Program and the Robert C. Byrd Institute brought the international VEX Robotics Competition to Marshall University on Saturday with a qualifying round, giving kids in the area the chance to get scholarships and to compete in a state championship March 3 in Fairmont, West Virginia.
In the competition each year, students in high school and middle school must use kits to design and build robots that can accomplish certain tasks. Teams this year were challenged to mimic an essential function of NASA's rover missions on Mars - to build a robot capable of quickly picking things up and putting them in a precise location.
"West Virginia really rocks it," said Pam Casto, NASA education specialist at IV&V's Educator Resource Center. "West Virginians are really innovative thinkers and builders and problem-solvers."
The Robert C. Byrd Institute started hosting the competition two years ago as an additional qualifier for the state championship.
Before getting involved in the VEX competition, the Robert C. Byrd Institute hosted FIRST LEGO League competitions, which have a similar robotics component that helps kids think like engineers and scientists. Spokesman Mike Friel said the institute supports advanced manufacturing and helping people innovate with technology.
"The skill level required in manufacturing is much higher than it used to be," Friel said, noting companies need more skilled workers to fill advanced manufacturing jobs. "We want to introduce students at an early age to the STEM fields ... in hopes that it will spark an interest."
Huntington and Cabell Midland high schools didn't qualify Saturday for the state championship, but both will have one last chance Feb. 3 during another qualifying round in Fairmont.
Having the ability to compete in more than one regional qualifying round gives teams the chance to see what other teams are doing and make adjustments to their robots.
The competition is tough - Casto said teams from West Virginia have won all three of NASA's national robotics competitions in the past three years, as well as 14 international and world championships.
"Hopefully we'll have a more qualified bot," said Alex Prichard, a 17-year-old senior on the robotics team at Huntington High School. "We'll be putting in a lot of hours this week."
Prichard became interested in robotics when he learned his school had a team in ninth grade. He didn't get to do much work on the robot in his first year, so he made his own.
Although he's interested in pursuing a career in computer science, Prichard is open to the possibility of working with robotics. The chance to do some programming was what originally attracted him to the team in the first place, and the past few years have been fun enough to keep going.
"One of the VEX rules is no destroying the other robot, sadly," Prichard said. "Otherwise, we would definitely (win) that."
Follow reporter Joshua Qualls on Twitter @JQuallsHD.
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