First Robotics Competition - SA Stock Show and Rodeo

Last Thursday afternoon, Austin and Mariana left town for her first competition since joining 4-H Robotics. She has such a gift for this kind of thing, and I am so thankful to have found this wonderful opportunity for her to foster and grow that talent. Unfortunately, I came down with the family illness the night before they left, so I was a little less happy to see them go than I expected...but still thankful!
Austin was so good at sending me pictures throughout the day so I could feel more like I was there!
The young man in the picture is a very generous college student who coaches her team on a volunteer basis. What an amazing guy!

 There were 42 teams total, 30 in the senior division (age 14-18) and 12 in the junior division (age 11-13). Look at all those work tables!

 Getting started...I believe once the challenge was released they had 10 minutes in which to talk with their coach, and then they were on their own to make it happen!

 There were several matches in which they would test their final product in front of the judge (who was grading them all along on teamwork and other such things). They made it through and were in first place (of the 3 teams moving on) going into finals. However, the computer decided to do a firmware update, and they lost an entire program and had to just sort of hack/wing it! They came out in 2nd place in the end. Not bad at all! We were so proud!