3D Robotics, a Duluth youth robotics organization, is sending three teams to Houston from April 16-19 to compete in the FIRST Championship, the world scholastic robotics tournament.
While the competitors are all young people, the elevation to the global level brings its own set of intimidation and intrigue.
"I've heard the Romanian teams are really good at robotics," says Odin, one of the youths representing 3D Robotics.
The Northland teams are aware that at this competition, they are the young underdogs. Some of the foreign teams have been competing for years, and it takes some mental preparation to decide how to proceed in the face of mounting odds.
"We sat down after State and we're like 'Ok, what mentality do we want to go into worlds with,'" said Maddie. "You can either go and give it everything you've got or you can, you know, just go and have fun. Experience it."
The team decided to build a whole other robot after state in order to compete for the world championship.
Members of the teams also won individual awards. Team Captain Lily Bruno is a finalist for the prestigious FIRST Dean's List award for embodying the values of the FIRST organization. This means she will represent Minnesota at the world championship. Her sister also won the Youth Mentor award for her work mentoring younger teams in robotics.
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