MOSES LAKE - Instead of traveling to Seattle this weekend to participate in a sports competition, a group of Moses Lake students let their robot compete for them.

Moses Lake High School students traveled to Seattle for the regional FIRST Robotics Competition in Seattle, competing against 92 schools from around the world.

It was the first time students from the high school have participated in the competition.

FIRST, which stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," helps students build science, engineering and technology skills.

One major emphasis of the robotics competition is to get kids in contact with people in industry, said Chad Utter, an instructor for the high school's manufacturing technology program.

Both SGL/BMW and Eka donated money to the school's team and Genie donated supplies, he said. Ideally, the students are supposed to work directly with mentors to help build the robots. Their mentor this year lived in the Tri-Cities and, due to the distance, couldn't meet with the students as often as they would have liked, he said.

Utter has since made contact with someone from SGL with a background in robotics who is eager to help out next year, he said.

While some teams at the competition struggled to stay under the $3,500 limit on materials, Moses Lake's team only spent about $500 or $600 on their robot, he said.

"Everything is recycled material on there," he said. "We didn't buy any metal, it was just stuff we had."

Each year, FIRST poses a different challenge to teams. This year, students had six weeks to design robots to lift a basketball and shoot it into a basket.

"It was difficult at first until we all figured out what we were doing," said junior Michael Vandergiessen. "Then we got the hang of it and ... the robot started coming together a lot faster."

The students drew designs on a whiteboard and discussed which ones they liked. Once they began implementing their ideas, they had to make many modifications.

It taught the students to work with, and be patient with, each other, said junior Miguel Mancilla.

Students in the school's manufacturing technology class were primarily responsible for the design of the robot. Junior Thor Julsrud took the lead in programming the robot.

Julsrud has experience with robotics, having participated in one of FIRST's LEGO League robotics competitions in his native Norway.

"I knew how everything that could go wrong would go wrong," he said with a laugh.

While the team had its challenges, people from more experienced teams said it was common to struggle the first year as they acquaint themselves with the process of building a robot, said Utter.

"All rookie teams go through the same thing," he said. "Everybody we talked to (said), 'Oh, you'll be fine. Next year will be a whole lot better.' There's a lot of learning to do that first year."