For the second consecutive year, students from Illinois State’s Technology and Engineering Education Collegiate Association (TEECA) attended the BattleBots competition February 5 and 6 at Rolling Meadows High School to act as volunteers in helping run the successful event. Illinois State University students were able to interact with student teams from the competing high schools and work alongside technology and engineering teachers from the District 214 schools.

The object of the competition was to battle head-to-head with other robots as they work their way through a bracket-style competition. The goal is to destroy the other team’s robot in the two-minute rounds. If one of the robots is not taken down, it is up to the judges to decide the winner.

Student teams from each high school designed and built their robot themselves, learning about problem-solving, teamwork, creativity, electrical components, computer programming, and manufacturing in a fun, hands-on environment.

John Hersey High School from Arlington Heights had two teams with competition robots and ended up taking home both first and second places in the 2017 District 214 BattleBots Competition.