Students prepare for robotics competition

On Friday nights, 20 eighth grade students at Simmons Middle School won’t be found at a football game, but rather in a lab designing, building and promoting a robot for the UAB BEST Robotics competition.

At the Warp XX competition, October 6 at Bartow Arena, the students’ robot will climb a 10-foot pole, simulating the use of a space tether connected from Earth to a satellite.

About 30 teams of students interested in engineering from high schools and middle schools around the area will compete. Last year, Simmons’ robot placed seventh in the BEST competition.