Burrillville High, The Prout School, and The Fellowship from Scituate win the state competition.
WARWICK — Three Rhode Island teams are going to Pennsylvania in March for the regional championships of a national robotics competition.
The teams from Burrillville High School and The Prout School, in South Kingstown, will be joined by a team called The Fellowship from Scituate in the next round of the FIRST Tech Challenge in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
They won the chance to move on after coming out on top at the state competition on Saturday at the New England Institute of Technology’s Center for Automotive Technology, in Warwick.
Thirty-two teams from schools around Rhode Island took part, building robots and seeing which were best at stacking blocks and moving other objects during the raucous, all-day contest that had the feel of a sporting event.
It was the 12th year that New England Tech has hosted the FIRST — For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology — competition. But the contest has been staged in Rhode Island since the mid-1990s, building on a longstanding commitment to teaching robotics.
“We were the first state in the country to offer robotics in all our high schools,” said Erin Flynn, a New England Tech employee who directed this year’s competition.
Between 40 and 50 teams usually participate, and this year was no different. Forty-four teams signed up, with 12 eliminated over the course of three qualifying rounds that started in December.
The winning teams weren’t just the best at the game: Design and teamwork were also factors in the judging.
The competition aims to foster skills in problem-solving and critical thinking. It’s supported by government agencies, businesses and educational institutions that include Electric Boat, FM Global and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. Volunteers from those entities help the teams and judge the contest.
“We would be nowhere without the dedication of volunteers who believe in this," Flynn said.