Robots battle it out gladiator-style
Butler Senior High School junior Riley Rodgers watched with wide eyes as the robot M.O.A.B. sent Absolute Zero, another robot, flying across the ring.
“That's the second match I've seen,” said Riley, 16. “I felt excited.”
Smoke and sparks spurted from robots as 21 local and area high school teams went head-to-head in a gladiator-style robot competition during the 14th annual Southwestern Pennsylvania BotsIQ preliminaries on Thursday at Butler County Community College.
BotsIQ is a manufacturing workforce development program disguised as a high school robotics competition, according to its website.
The contest is focused on science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, as students design, build and battle robots.
To learn more about the competition and find out what became of Absolute Zero, check out today's Butler Eagle.
