Robots are the new frontier, and you can bet your bottom dollar that the tech invasion is real.

On Oct. 22, the Allen High School Eagle Robotic UIL team took second place at the Collin County Boosting Engineering and Science Technology (BEST) competition, where they were also awarded “The Most Robust Robot.”

“Going to state has been something we’ve been pushing after for the past three years, and for us to finally win it; it was beyond exciting,” robotics senior president Vennela Gajjala said. “I’m so happy that not only did we win the award that allowed us to go to state — the BEST award — but we also won ‘Most Robust Robot.’”

BEST robotics is a UIL Academic STEM competition. By Sept. 12, the team had to blueprint, construct from raw materials and rehearse with the robot for a challenge with a six-week time frame. In addition, they had to lay the groundwork for various interviews from judging engineers and fabricate a marketing presentation.

“We have to write this big 55-page engineering notebook in order to be able to compete at state so we spent the last week working late nights,” Gajjala said. “I stayed up until 6 a.m. one time trying to get this stuff done and submitted [for state].”

As people can tell robotics is more than just robots. The team is about having skills that won’t rust, along with a dedicated mindset.

“I wish [people] knew that [robotics] is more than just robots; a lot of what I do here at robotics is raising money for the team, going and talking to companies [and] presenting. There’s a huge business aspect of it, too,” Gajjala said. “It’s not only the traditional parts of what you think robotics is; it’s not just engineering and numbers — there’s so much more to it.”

Robotics endures some pretty long working hours. When completing in high class events the Eagles Robotics has to put some elbow grease in for their victory.

“The reason that we do robotics is that it gives students a problem that they have to solve and it’s not something that has just one set of skills; a lot of it is math; there’s some physics and science involved; there’s some problem solving; [and] some figuring stuff out,” Robotics sponsor Greg Burnham said. “That’s part of why we do it.”

Going to state is seen to be truly extraordinary to the Eagle Robots.

“That particular competition — BEST — they have to design all the parts. They get a brain and some motors [however] they don’t get wheels; they have come up with their own,” Burnham said. “All of it has to come from their own designs.”

This particular group of students have to utilize their personal creativity and focus on bringing their ideas to a 3-dimensional substance.    

“I’ve been doing this for awhile and this is really the first team I’ve had that’s qualified for state and did it really strong,” Burnham said. “So I think they are [going to rank].”