Original design, enjoyment, and teamwork were the factors that led to success at the VEX Robotics Regional Competition in the Student Activities Center Nov. 2.

The competition is for “publicity, publicity for our club, making a little bit of money for fundraising. It’s also to get our footprint into the VEX Robotics Competition; this is our second year doing it, so we might do this in the future again if the club stays healthy,” Harold (Ed) Hofmann, robotics club adviser, said. “Right now, it takes a lot of manpower to put these things on and, if the club is in good size, we can do this every year. But it takes a lot of hours.”

Middle and high school students participated in the VEX Robotics Competition, Hofmann said.

The main purpose of the event was for middle and high school teams to qualify to advance to the state championship in Santa Clara in March.

From there, they would have the chance to go on to the world championship in Anaheim in April, where the EC robotics club can attend too, Brandon Marshall, 29, president of the robotics club and music major, said.

The event was sponsored by EC clubs including Women in Technology, the Robotics Club, the Industry and Technology Division, Society of Women Engineers, and Society of Manufactory Engineers.

“We sponsor the robotics event to entice more students to register in our program here at El Camino,” Lorena Montes, member of WIT and volunteer coordinator of the VEX Competition, said. “I’m having a great time. I just love to see all of these young students. I know they are going to be our future students.”

Stephanie Rodriguez, dean of industry and technology, participated as a judge. They judged the designs of the robots and they have different awards including the design award, the excellence award, and the judges award, she said.

The teams from across souther California spent most of the day battling to qualify to the next round.

The team Rolling Robots from Rolling Hills Estates won the design award and the judges award. The excellence award went to NerdherdB from California Academy of Mathematics & Science from Carson, according to robotevents.com.

Brent Dixon, 24, computer science major, said the biggest benefit of the event is that the middle and high school students can grow and develop in a situation where they have to fix their robot or tend to other problems.

“I think it’s amazing. We have, I believe, 48 high schools and we have some middle schools that are working with the high schools to build these robots,” Rodriguez said. “It’s amazing to see so many young people being creative and really energized.”