Students Build Battle Robot, Get Life Lessons In Return

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MIAMI (Pembroke Pines) -- West Broward High School's robotics team is taking on the world as they prepare to head to the Houston World Championships next month with their very own battle bot.

You can call them innovators of the future!

From freshman to seniors, even Phillip, their honorary home school member, and other members of the 'Botcats' have poured hours into making their technologically advanced robot.

It's what they are passionate about and it's what they love doing in their free time but it's also opening the door to their future careers.

"It's the closest thing to real-life work experience we are able to get," says club co-president Toni-Ann Peck.

Peck said big names are starting to take notice.

"We've had representatives from FPL, from elite schools like MIT go to these championships competitions, come to our regional competitions," said Peck.

They are turning the word, "nerd" into something cool because what can be cooler than building your own fully functioning robot?

With the help of their teachers, sponsors, and parents, the high school robotics team managed to make it to the most prestigious high school robotics competition that will be held in Houston next month.

Darlene Rice, physics teacher and advisor says, "It's phenomenal for my kids. This is the Olympics for the mind. This is like a sports team. This is like the Super Bowl."

Just like the Super Bowl, this competition isn't cheap.

"Altogether, in a year, we go through about 30 thousand dollars to build this robot and go into the tournaments," said Rice.

Although the process is expensive, it is all worth it to Louis Andrew, secondary club co-president.

"We spent so many hours on it and it accomplished something and it's really awesome and I just think about all the hours we spent building it and it's really a labor of love."