Students from across the Central Coast gathered in Santa Maria on Saturday to demonstrate their technical prowess and innovation.
From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Central Coast Clash Rapid Relay Invitational was held at Tommie Kunst Junior High.
The event was part of the nationwide VEX IQ Robotics Competition, which challenges elementary and middle school students to build robots and test their strength.
51 teams of kids from San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties entered into the competition.
"It's fun, meeting new people who like robots," Jordan, a participant in the competition, said. "You get to challenge yourself, see how long it takes you to build something."
Pedro Garcia IV, a teacher in the Santa Maria Bonita School District, told KSBY about the purpose of the competition.
"That's what this whole experience is for, is so that they can take their creativeness, apply it and, you know, really explore that design and engineering process and bring it to life."
The winners of Saturday's event will move on to the VEX IQ Robotics State Championships, which are slated to happen in Los Angeles at the end of February.
