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Rancho Bernardo High Robotics Team Punches Ticket to World Championships

Rancho Bernardo High School's robotics team is headed to the world championship in Houston.

It comes on the heels of a surprise win at the regional robotics competition earlier this month.

On Tuesday, members of Rancho Bernardo High's robotics club will board a plane to Texas. There, after a four-day competition, a world champion will be crowned.

This is the first time the school made it to this level and how they did it may surprise you.

Team leaders Andrew da Cunha and Shaina Mishra have been robot building for a combined nine years.

β€œI love the fact that I can see something on paper and make it come to life," Mishra said.

Their robot, appropriately named "Captain Hook," took first place in the regional competition two weeks ago.

"It is such an amazing experience to even be regional winners, so it's like that times a million. Your robot is the best in the entire world," Mishra said.

The robot is impressive, but their secret weapon this year did not come from the drawing board.

"The mindset wasn't 'Let’s win this competition.' Let’s have fun while we're doing it as well," daCunha said.

Robot building is more club than a class. Forty-eight team members working during their spare time for six weeks was what it took to create Captain Hook.

The regional win catapulted Team E-motion into the world championship where 800 teams will compete for the title.

"It’s the world championship, so it is obviously going to be tough, but we are prepared. Our drive team is ready, our robot is wonderful and I think we are going to kill it,” Mishra said.

The winner in this competition will have to load boxes onto platforms and in storage spaces faster than any other robot.

It's not so much what the robot can do, but what its development is doing for the students.

β€œWe want to come back and help another group of students go to the championships, then they are going to come back and help the next generation," daCuhna said.

There is no monetary award, just bragging rights. Still, a win at this level is the kind of thing that leads to college scholarships and success beyond that.

World Championship competition starts Wednesday

The world championship competition will cost the team some $18,000 to participate, so the team started a GoFundMe page to offset the costs.

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