Robots of all shapes and sizes are coming to life and performing tasks that could someday save lives. The masterminds behind these machines: Middle school students from all parts of the state.

"Some of them are being used to perform surgery and our project is actually using nano technology and nanobots" says team Blazer Bots.

37 teams are competing in a tournament where they have to solve real world problems by constructing these robots. This year's theme is bio engineering.

These students are our future scientists and engineers, bio engineers so some of the things they are thinking of may not be out of the reach for them" says Wesley Fondal, Director of Starbase Robins.

The goal of the event, sponsored by First Lego League, is to get kids excited about math and science and teach them important life skills.

"(We) discussed the pros and cons of each robot and combined all the good things into one robot" says team Cyber Squad.

As part of the competition teams match up in a timed event trying to complete as many medically inspired objectives as possible. The robots are uniquely designed and programmed by teams to execute each task.

"They're trying to find that middle ground between the most points in the least amount of time" says scorekeeper Mychal Epps.

The second part of the scoring is determined by a presentation round.
Teams show off the knowledge they have gained by finding solutions to medical problems such as avoiding chemotherapy by directly killing cancer cells or helping the blind see with bionic eyes and echolocation.

"I think we got a better understanding of how many blind people are in the world and what they face" says team Bio Bots.

Their solutions are quite amazing.

They were bringing in information that i learned when i was 21 years old in college. You know 6 and 7th graders knowing this and actually being able to understand that and actually come up with something new and unique" says Judge Becky Trotter.

Winners move on next to states at Georgia Tech and eventually the wold competition in St. Louis.