It's not too far into the school year, and already, local high school engineering teams made their mark on an international stage while putting Nebraska on the map.
Traveling more than 6,500 miles, with no home advantage, Douglas County West High School took the top title in a huge upset by unseating last year’s winners from China during the World Robotics Conference in Beijing.
DC West joined eight other local robotics teams for the recent three-day conference including Skutt Catholic, Gross Catholic and Benson high schools.
Early Tuesday, the teams arrived at Eppley Airfield to a small gathering of friends and family with signs reading “congrats” and “welcome.”
Students from nine different local schools represented Nebraska on a world stage.
One of the competitions involves robots made by VEX, a manufacturing company specializing in tools and design systems for educational purposes.
“It's basically a series of cones and then stands to put the cones on,” said Dan Maline, a robotics teacher for DC West middle and High schools. “So you're competing two robots against two robots."
From there, groups race to see who can stack the highest in specific zones.
In the end, DC West brought home a special souvenir by defeating Gross, which came in second – both feats a rarity, since teams from China tends to dominate the competition, according to Maline.
Skutt High School also received an award for best invention.
