Building a robot isn’t some science fiction tale for the students in Brian Lidington’s robotics class. An electives course during the school day, it becomes a team after school that takes part in a variety of competitions, with an upcoming contest on Saturday.

“The competitions go all day, and are open to all size schools and private schools so it is a totally open competition,” engineering teacher Brian Lidington said.

Students build every component of the robot, including the exterior design and the wiring. Ideas can come from class, but also from YouTube and other online sites. The class also looks at previous competition robots.

“Most of the time we find things online,” senior Calvin Liu said. “We would find designs or something and combine it with our own ideas.”

The robots have basic functions such as moving, lifting, and grabbing objects, all necessary components in competitions.

“Obviously, we program our robots to move around, picking up cubes, raising its arms, and putting cubes on posts,” Liu said.

Although many of the students in the robotics club come from the class, it’s available to everyone, even if they have no experience with robotics.

“Really whomever comes and joins is welcome,” Lidington said. “There are no tryouts or anything. We meet Tuesday and Thursday in my room after school.”

For many students it’s nothing more than a class, but some, robotics is a roadmap for the future.

“I plan to major in computer science,” Liu said. “And so for robotics, you have program lots of things, and I’m using this as practice for me.”