What do you get when you combine six high school students, a bunch of metal, gears, scraps of electronics and a few motors?

You get Exothermic 10 D Imensional, one of Washington’s top VEX Robotics high school competition team.

The team is comprised of Redmond High School (RHS) students Sahana Cidambi, Hayden Wisman, Michael Koeppen, Krisitian Koeppen, Matt Macris and Robert Swan.

The team took to the community last week to promote the growing sport as they prepare for the next VEX Robotics competition at the RHS gym on Saturday, Feb. 25. The VEX Robotics Competition is the largest and fastest growing middle and high school robotics program globally with more than 3,500 teams from 20 countries playing in more than 250 tournaments worldwide.

Last Thursday, the team gave a presentation to the Redmond Police Department Community Advisory Board trying to get members of the police force to mentor other RHS robotics teams, and then last Friday, the students gave a hands-on presentation to seniors at the Emerald Heights Retirement Community.

Cidambi, who is also the coach for the team, has worked with seniors before and was instrumental in organizing the presentation at the seniors center.

“I loved being with the seniors,” Cidambi said. “It gives me such a great feeling to be able to interact with them and show them that students of today have drive and want to make the world a better place, and are not just thinking of themselves.”

The robot, nicknamed “The Beast,” the students and the seniors instantly connected. Shortly after the presentation started many of the seniors took turns examining the robot, asking in-depth questions about the robot, the VEX Robotics competition, how the team functions, how the game is played and how this program is helping the students prepare for the future.

The team’s mentor Andrew Koeppen, a realtor for John L. Scott said, “Vex Robotics has been great for every member of this team. I have seen a lot of growth in maturity of these students. The real life experiences these students learn in building and competing in Vex tournaments give these students a phenomenal leg up. In addition to learning robotics and computer science, they learn adaptability, handling stressful situations, team work, and not to make excuses. This is making them great future employees and citizens of this country.”

For more information about the upcoming VEX competition at Redmond High, call Koeppen at (425) 985-5124.