A teen robotics team based in Bethany finished among the top five alliances at the FIRST World Championship in Houston, the squad's first trip to the event.

High Voltage, a 4-H club with 13 members from area high schools, competed in the FIRST Tech Challenge from April 29 through May 2. The competition drew 336 teams from around the world. Students in grades 7 through 12 designed, built and programmed their own robots.

The top 24 teams advanced to double-elimination playoffs, where they formed three-team alliances. High Voltage's alliance reached the top five in its division.

Ten of the team's 13 members joined this year, and none had competed at a world championship before, Oregon State University's Extension Service reported.

This season's challenge asked teams to build a robot that could pick up 5-inch Wiffle balls and shoot them into a goal. High Voltage built a square robot with a rotating bungee cord mechanism that lets balls roll inside, where three flickers lift them to a spinning turret that fires toward the goals.

Team captain and software lead Roushil Satta, a sophomore at Westview High School, knew nothing about robots before joining. In a June OSU Extension news release, Satta said the experience went well beyond the competition floor.

"Through the entire journey of the season up to the summit of the World Championship, we all learned so much," Satta said. "Meeting new teams internationally, discussing with them and seeing what they had done was a really cool thing."

The club is student-driven. Members develop their own ideas and designs, while volunteer coaches provide technical guidance. Coach Sandhya Subramanian, an immunologist, and co-coach Ashok Murugavel, an engineer at Intel, lead the program.

Because alliances form on the day of a match, students pitch themselves to potential partners on site. Subramanian said the format builds leadership and public speaking alongside engineering skills.

Beyond competition, team members visit Washington County schools to introduce younger students to robotics. With support from the OSU Extension 4-H Youth Development Program, the club hosted a spring break camp at the Extension office in Beaverton. Students learned computer-aided design and 3D-printed custom coins stamped with "High Voltage" on one side and their own designs on the other.

Mishka Sapra, a freshman at Sunset High School and the team's outreach manager, said in the same news release that community impact kept her on the team. She said robotics drew her in because she saw how it could share STEM with people in her community.

High Voltage is part of Washington County's 4-H program, run through the OSU Extension Service. As a 4-H club, the team is eligible for matching funds from Washington County communities to help cover materials and travel.

Cedar Mill News highlighted the team's achievement as part of National 4-H Week, which runs Sunday, Oct. 4 through Oct. 10 under the theme "Beyond Ready." Washington County has more than 30 4-H clubs with activities ranging from robotics to civic leadership to a cat club.

Washington County 4-H hosts a free open house on Oct. 24 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Visitation Parish Center, 4189 NW Visitation Road, Forest Grove. No registration is required.