The 18th Annual San Diego FIRST Robotics Competition presented by Qualcomm
is happening through Sunday at UC San Diego's LionTree Arena.
Approximately 1,500 high school students from across San Diego County and as far away as Hawaii and the Middle East will be participating.
During the competition, the student teams use their personally designed and constructed robots to retrieve game pieces while trying to score points and play defense against other robots.
“People think of robotics as nerdy. It's not nerdy. It's for everybody," said Nicholas Lopez, 18, who is a member of the Lincoln High School Steel Stingers.
They are rookies at the FIRST Robotics competition.
FIRST is an acronym — For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.
“It feels like a dream. It feels like a dream I just woke up from," Lopez said.
The dream started earlier this school year as a core group of about a dozen Lincoln High School students worked together to create a 105-pound robot made of aluminum, steel, plastic, wires and zip ties with a motor.
Just a couple of weeks ago, the Lincoln Steel Stingers defeated 51 more experienced teams in a Ventura County regional competition, guaranteeing them a spot in the World Championships in Houston next month.
"Winning the whole thing out of nowhere. Nobody expected us to be this good and where we’re currently,” Lopez said.
Julio Flores, 17, is the robot’s driver and the engineering leader.
“Because we’re a first-year team, I wanted to keep it very simple for us and nothing too crazy," Flores said. "I know our limits in terms of machining and programming. So we went with a very simple design where it’s one arm controlling and you can score in different ways."
The students are coached by Jeremiah Jeffries, a former aerospace engineer who changed careers to make more of a difference and bring a new kind of sport to Lincoln High School
“We have an amazing football program. We have an amazing sports program. We also have some very smart kids with great academic skills. We also want to showcase that with something like FIRST Robotics," Jeffries said.
The Lincoln High School team will travel to Houston on April 19 for the world championships.
This weekend's event at UC San Diego is free and open to the public.
