Racing coded machines and applying engineering to their everyday lives, they are working hard to win the big competitions and go to regionals. Whether they’re building, coding, or competing for first place, the Bowie Botdogs are making it all the way to the end.

“We design and build robots to compete in the FIRST tech challenge. We have four competitions in the fall and if we make it to the world championships that are in the spring,” Sponsor Laura Mixon said.

FIRST tech stands for inspiration and recognition of science and technology, and it is one of the most important competitions for the Bowie Bot dawgs. In the club, students learn how to apply engineering skills in a fun and friendly environment.

“It is part of the Austin metro league. There are about 40 high schools from Texas, mostly in Austin and surrounding areas,” Mixon said. For the competitions, they call it the Rover Ruckus, and that was inspired by the 50th anniversary of landing on the moon.”

The robotics club meets Wednesdays and Fridays in room A104 from 4:30-5:30, and anyone can join with no experience necessary. Level one is an introduction level, and level two is a competition level.

“We have two teams and the highest one is the Veteran team. The veteran team goes to the big competitions and our first one is November tenth,” Sophomore and founder Conner Petru said. “If we make it to regionals, then that competition is in January.”

The robotics club is a new club and was founded in 2017 by students who all wanted to give others a tech extracurricular.

“Some students asked me to be a sponsor, Bradley Mixon, Conner, and Daniel Yllana. They came and asked me if I would sponsor and it was very interesting and I never looked back,” Mixon said.

Many people in this club want to do something involving robotics in their future, but the club is also there just to expand knowledge and have fun with robotics.

“I want to try and work on the rover for JPL at NASA. In general, helping to expand robotic space exploration,” Petru said.