DULUTH, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -
Hundreds of technologically gifted teenagers are gathering at the Gwinnett Center for a two-day, action-packed robotics competition.
It's the regional lead-up to a national competition.
Students from Georgia and six surrounding states (Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Missouri) are going head-to-head to see which team can engineer the most amazing robot.
Each team had just six just weeks to build a robot that could perform the required tasks. This year's event requires the robots to throw discs through a goal and climb pyramids. Some of the teams are from high schools. Others are sponsored by community groups like the Boys and Girls Club or 4-H.
Representatives from several technology companies were on hand to meet the student participants.
"It's really nice to have a company say, 'Hey, come join us after college,' or 'Come join us soon,' or some offering to pay for college with scholarships," said Jay Kroshnaswamy, a sophomore at Peachtree Ridge High School. "They see us out here working like they do in the field and everything. It's – oh gosh – it's a lot."
"I just talked to somebody from Lockheed Martin," said John Coen, a sophomore at The Westminster Schools in Atlanta. "And it's amazing that they just want to talk to us because, I mean, they're my idol, and just to be able to speak to them and that they're interested in me is amazing."
The competition is sponsored by a Georgia-based non-profit called FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.) It lasts until 5:30 p.m. Friday and continues Saturday from 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. at the Gwinnett Center located at 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth.
Copyright 2013 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.
