Created: 11/22/2009 1:44:30 PM 
Greensboro, NC - It's one thing to compete against other students in your school, city or state. But it's a whole different ball game when you're up against kids from all over the world. The robotics team at Southeast High School did just that and placed! In this School Solutions report, WFMY News 2's Tracey McCain shows us how the team puts together a winning robot from start to finish. The Southeast robotics team is still working through some kinks on their demo robot. "As of right now it can drive around in a decent speed. And we have a sensor on here but it's not fully programmed yet," said the robotics team president Kameron Eason. "So pretty much what it can do is drive like a remote control car." But with a few more tweaks, their robot could win the team its next state title and take them to the world robotics championships for the second time. "World competition as in people from Japan, we had some people from Europe some Asian countries, Mexico and all over the United States," said Eason. The team placed 27th in the 2009 FIRST Tech Challenge World Championships. Now they're looking ahead to building an even better bot and taking home an even bigger win. "Makes us feel like we can actually do something really good this year," said the Southeast Senior. A lot of team work goes into creating, building and programming a robot. Take it from team programmer Bryan Helms. "I treat it like a logic puzzle," said Helms, a Senior at the school. "Basically I have to learn what commands do what and I have to make it do that. I have to also tell it to only move if its pressing this button," he said. One might say, you'd be have to be real smart to build a robot, but the team at Southeast is as humble as humble pie. "I don't want to sound conceited," said Senior Bethany Boring. "We're kind of smart. We're smart enough to get this together," admits Eason. Most of the team plans to use their skills as a video game designer one day. "It's a start," says Helms. As for now they have their eyes set on another shot on taking home a world title. The Southeast robotics team is busy getting their robot ready for their next competition in February. If they win the regional competition, they'll then go on to the world championships in Spring 2010.
WFMY News 2
