Janet Lathan, a teacher at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C., talks about the new First Tech Challenge robot on Thursday during the Robotics Educators Conference at Butler County Community College's Science and Technology Building. BC3 partnered for the second year with Carnegie Mellon University to host the conference, which shows teachers how to use robotics in the classroom.

BUTLER TWP — People from New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, England and "almost every state in the union," converged Thursday at Butler County Community College to learn about robotics.

But there also was a focus on reaping a benefit for southwestern Pennsylvania.

"We really want to be the robotics corridor, " said Steve Catt, BC3 director of planning and external relations.

BC3 partnered for the second year with Carnegie Mellon University to host the Robotics Educators Conference. More than 140 people registered for the international three-day conference, which concludes today.

While the focus is on showing teachers how to use robotics in the classroom, Catt saw the opportunity for local manufacturers. He invited representatives from the Butler County Manufacturing Consortium and leaders from municipalities and organizations such as theButler Chamber of Commerce to attend the event.

Catt said without a pipeline of interested students and employers, the area won't become the "Silicon Valley of robotics."

Jim Furguson, president of the consortium and also a vice president at Penn United, said earlier this week he was encouraged by the promotion and support of robotics in the area. Furguson, who was unable to attend the conference, said he was aware of at least one small manufacturer in the area using robots and thought there would be opportunities for more in the future.

State Rep. Brad Roae, R-Crawford County, was at the conference in BC3's Science and Technology Building on Thursday morning to learn about the applications of robots in manufacturing.

He said there are several businesses in his district that use robots, and he wanted to see what needs and difficulties those manufacturers might face.

"Robots are a big part of our manufacturing future," he said.

John Bares, director of the National Robotics Engineering Center of Carnegie Mellon, presented three robots he and his crews developed to start off the training portion of the conference.

"We're really trying to inspire kids to see how math and science can be used," Bares said.

The educators today were to continue learning how to do that at BC3 with hands-on training.