In mid-September, three Harker sixth graders took top spots at the World Robot Olympiad USA national championship in Sunnyvale. Kallie Wang and her teammates won first place in the elementary group (for ages 12 and under) in the regular category, and Mikhil Kiran and Aidan Okyar’s team placed third and won the best robot design award. As a result, both teams have been invited to the international finals in Hungary, set to take place in November.

Since its inaugural season in 2004, the World Robot Olympiad robotics competition has provided young people from more than 65 countries the opportunity to develop their design and problem solving skills. Each year it attracts more than 26,000 teams.