One group of area junior engineers is getting a head start. Four the last three years a team of home-school children from Temple and Belton have competed in the First Lego League robotics competition, putting custom-built robots through their paces in a task-oriented obstacle courses.
The X-Bot team of Alex Jaworski, 12, Cheyne Murray, 11, both of Temple, and Kyle Wade, 10, and George Mobley, 11, of Belton took second place overall and third in the robotic performance category in a First Lego League state competition in Austin. The local team was just a few points away from going to the international competition.
Working over a homemade work table in a storage room in the back of the Jaworski house, the team spent four months building and programming, using trial and error to get their robot to perform the tasks required.
The X-Bots team members said building the robot and preparing for the competition was both fun and challenging, and they learned a lot from their experiences.
One of the unanticipated challenges this year was learning a brand new programming language to use with the NXT model robots, but programming whizzes Wade and Mobley buckled down and can now communicate with fluently with their automaton. With the help of newcomer Murray, who the team described as a fantastic addition, and the experience and meticulous care Jaworski takes in setting up for the challenges, the X-Bot team excelled against older teams with more members.
Their motto when building their robot was
