San Diego students show their robotics talent and innovation at the World Championships in Houston

The final results at the FIRST Robotics World Championships in Houston will be decided sometime late Saturday.

But no matter the outcome, students from nine San Diego County high schools showed their talent and innovation this week in a competition against more than 600 robotics teams worldwide.

Team Spyder from Poway High School brought 27 students to the international event. They had a strong showing, winning several matches, including two back-to-back on Friday.

The Spyders worked with two other randomly selected teams in an alliance using their robots to collect small rubber hoops known as ‘notes.’

“Our strategy was to have one of our alliance partners feed us the notes and our other alliance partner helped us pick up the notes to score,” said Cole Giczkowski, one of the team’s robot drivers.

Besides Poway High School, other San Diego County teams competing in Houston were from Westview, Torrey Pines, Patrick Henry, Oceanside, Lincoln, High Tech High, the Francis Parker School and Canyon Crest Academy.

Team Holy Cows was made up of students from different High Tech High campuses across the county. The robotics program is celebrating its 20th anniversary. It has become a well-oiled machine that is also producing diversity, equity and inclusion among leadership.

Sadie Han, 17, is a junior at High Tech High Media Arts in Point Loma, and the operator of the drive team.

“I want to show other girls you can be an engineer. You can be in robotics. It’s for you even if you think it’s not. This is a space women should be in and little girls should feel accepted in,” Han said.

The finals on Saturday are called the Einstein playoffs.

The top eight teams get to begin a scouting process to choose who they play with.

That opens the door of possibility for teams that might not have otherwise made it.

Win, place, or show, teachable moments happened across the George R. Brown Convention Center, this week.

“Ultimately it’s about learning. They’re learning 21st-century skills, soft skills, technical and business skills. We want them to be well-rounded,” said Rodger Dohm, head coach of Team Spyder.

To keep track of our local teams over the weekend check out this website for more information and results.