Photo by Kristen Hainkel Students from Belpre High School and Fort Frye High School operate their robots during the first Ohio Valley Robotics and Drones competition at Belpre High School Tuesday.

BELPRE — Four area schools competed for scholarship money using robots at the first Ohio Valley Robotics and Drones competition at Belpre High School on Tuesday.

Teams contained up to two students each and were numbered 1-7 at random.

Belpre High School had six teams in the field, while Caldwell High School had one, Fort Frye High School had seven, Warren Middle School had two and Warren High School had six.

Teams were also randomly paired with a team from another school as an alliance.

“Alliances promote collaboration between our local schools,” said Tracey Huck, team advisor for Fort Frye.

Two alliances competed against each other in a bracket style tournament until a winner was crowned. Both teams in the winning alliance were awarded a $125 scholarship through Building Bridges to Careers, an organization that fosters relationships between businesses and schools located in Marietta.

In the competition, red and blue blocks are placed in the middle of the playing field. Each team operates their robot to build a pyramid with their assigned color, along with a green block. Finally, a green ball has to be placed on top to win.

If no team does so, the team that built their blocks the fastest wins the round for their alliance.

The competition was sponsored by Appalachian Ohio Manufacturers Coalition, a nonprofit of local manufacturing workers who promote education and skills readiness for a manufacturing career.

“If you bring this high tech experience to these kids, it helps them determine what they want to do for the future. The future is leaning towards automation. The kids are learning engineering principles to design these robots. That’s automation at its best.” said George Bilokonsky, Program Manager.

President Linn Yost, who also owns Micro Machine Works Inc. in Vincent, said he had seen Noble County’s Shenandoah High School robotics team go to a World Championship in 2022. That paired with a desire to educate local students started an idea to introduce robotics to the Ohio Valley.

“It grew organically. We had schools who were interested in robotics,” he said. “These kids learn engineering skills such as electrical and mechanical.”

Yost said robotics provides an alternative for students who aren’t interested in athletics.

“Not everyone wants to be a football or basketball player. These kids are athletes using their mind. They are using their mental muscle, as I like to call it,” he said.

Yost also said he hoped Tuesday’s competition will be the first of many across the region, wanting to “get as many kids involved as possible.”

Kristen Hainkel can be reached at khainkel@newsandsentinel.com