A T-shirt slogan at the tournament says it all: “Proud to be a Nerd.” Robotics 
programs have been an international phenomenon for almost two decades now, but it wasn’t until last year that they flashed to life across Hawai‘i—blooming all at once from a couple of dozen programs to well more than 300. Funding from the State Legislature funneled through the UH College of Engineering has helped to spur the surge. Suddenly the Lego/Rubik’s Cube/video game set can now swagger like varsity athletes, winners not only of prestigious state titles, but also of international competitions.

When you talk with the robotics kids, they themselves use the term “nerd” purely in jest. After all, they know quite well what kind of a world is coming. One 12-year-old girl I spoke with at the VEX competition—Sara Bashore, who had traveled with her team from West Hills, Los Angeles—told me she’d been into robotics for three years now, partly because “it’s just really fun” but also because she intends to become a cardiologist, and by the time she gets to work (she knows this for a fact), we’ll all have medical nano-bots circulating in our bloodstreams cleaning up clots, cancer cells and creepy viruses. Robotics promises to be the next techno-revolution. Why else would 
elective programs in rural Hawai‘i schools be getting money from NASA, BAE Systems, Boeing, Autodesk, Motorola and just about any big company that intends to stay in front of the wave?

In fact, robotics attracts students of all stripes. The same day I spoke with Sara, I spoke with Jon Asato, who is a student in Maui High School’s arts and communication track. He calls robotics “a good outlet to express my creativity at school. 

It allows me to use critical thinking and to practice working with others.” Communication is a big part of robotics, he says; it’s a field that requires a lot of teamwork and sharing of ideas. Laughing, he adds that robotics keeps him out of trouble: “No time for escapades. I do VEX from 2 o’clock to 6 or 7:30 four or five days a week.” In this way, Jon echoes statements people are always making about robotics—first, that it teaches far more than mere technology; and second, that kids in robotics programs become involved to an almost fanatical degree.

“The teachers’ complaint to me is that the kids don’t want to go home,” says Art Kimura, the man people call the grandfather of Hawai‘i robotics. “Is that so bad?” A retired University of Hawai‘i professor who runs Future Flight Hawai‘i, a project designed to get elementary students excited about science and technology, Art was a finalist for NASA’s Teacher in Space program back in the 1980s. Eleven years ago he teased a couple of grants from NASA’s space science program—the same people who sent those automated rovers to Mars—and helped start the first robotics projects at McKinley 
and Waialua High Schools.

Art was at the 2008 VEX tournament, drifting calmly through the crowded hubbub with Buddha-like poise and a serene smile. “This year in the state, robotics programs spent well over a million dollars. We now have nine qualifying tournaments in the state. Something happened here,” he said with a twinkle. “We’re not sure what.” Then he added earnestly, “We’re not just playing games with robots. We’re hoping to catalyze these kids into high-tech careers. For that, they need to learn how to be better workers. They need to learn teamwork and life skills.”