• Contributed Report
• Jan 31, 2025

Delta High School Robotics came home with a trophy for innovation after participating in the California Central Coast Vex Robotics competition at Cal Poly Jan. 25.

Engineering students at Cal Poly act as judges for the high school event that attracts 50 teams from throughout the state. The judges described the Delta robot as possessing key features that demonstrate “outside the box” thinking for a specific engineering portion of the robot.

Overall, they felt the design and team embodied Cal Poly’s philosophy for engineering.

“It was thrilling to win an engineering award and be recognized for our design by so many future engineers. This is why we build,” said student Adrian Lopez.

“Cal Poly is our largest local tournament while trying to qualify for state. The recognition keeps us going,” said student Alex Lopez.

“We have spent so much time studying engineering after school. Learning how to make something practical and efficient with minimal materials is no easy task,” added student Kody Alarcon.

“We were finalists at the state championship last year for an engineering award with a different team of students so I am just excited that we can demonstrate to the community in Santa Maria that there are plenty of students who are hungry for the chance to be engineers, and capable of competing at the highest levels of robotics in our area,” said Coach Jeff Cooper.