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High school students from east central Indiana competed, informally, with their robotics projects on Sunday. They were preparing for the 2008 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Challenge.

"We are here just, you know, comparing the robotics to other robotics. You know, try to get as much done, fine tuning as possible," Greigh Davis, president of team 829, said. “You know, do well, and hopefully we will win."

Students designed robotics by themselves in their workshops. They decided what they wanted to do, and their mentors helped them bring their projects to reality and assisted fixing technical problems.

Six teams attended this weekend’s practice for the actual competition, which comes later. There were two sides, red and blue. Each side has three teams with their different kinds of robotics. Some of the robotics are programmed for mobility, while others are more efficient at picking up balls and throwing them.

In every break between practicing sections, students and their mentors made adjustments to improve their robotics. Muncie robotics team coordinator, Cheryl Leblanc, says it's a good opportunity to identify problems.

“Everybody really enjoys the event today. I think it was useful, and it was really helpful for a lot of the teams to be able to practice together, and find out where the problem spots are,” Leblanc said.

Starting from Jan 5^th, teams had six weeks to design and build their projects. Feb. 19 marks the end of their "building season."