Long Island high school students competed in the annual FIRST Robotics Competition hosted by Half Hollow Hills High School West.

Students designed, built and navigated their robots in a series of games to demonstrate teamwork, problem-solving and STEM skills.

"Everything's been going really smoothly. We're really happy with our robot," said Anjali Ponugupati, a junior at Bethpage High School.

"We have people that are going to be future engineers, people who are probably going to be working at NASA years from now," said Anyaa Sachdev, a senior at Half Hollow Hills High School East.

Organizers of the competition say the event inspires interest in science, technology, and a broad range of other skills. Sunday's friendly competition is a chance for older students to introduce freshman to the world of robotics.

"This invitational was recently renamed last year in loving memory of our mentor who unfortunately passed away due to cancer. So, Kenneth R. Vessey Jr. – he was really a huge inspiration, huge driving force of our team," said Sachdev.

Students from more than 20 schools on Long Island competed and say this is the warm-up for the regional competition next year at Hofstra.

"We'll have teams from out of the country, out of the state and Long Island teams all competing – and that is almost one of 200 events worldwide," said Brian Cholerton, a volunteer with FIRST Long Island.

Winners of the regionals go on to the world championship in Houston, Texas, where 800 teams will compete.

"Robotics is more than just the robot, honestly, and we can see that all around here with how the teams are collaborating with each other," said Ponugupati.

The winners for Sunday's competition were Plainview-Old Bethpage, The Wheatley School, and Bay Shore.