The Red River Area Learning Center robotics team received the Hub Director’s Choice Award at the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 Bison BEST Robotics competition sponsored by NDSU’s College of Engineering. The award recognizes the team’s dedicated, continued and exceptional improvement over several years.

Team members are Aiden Ali, Angel Ballesteros, Brianna Clark, Haylee Elliot, Gracie Garcia, Keanu Moreno, Gilbert Munoz, Moses Munoz, Anahi Serrata and Muhamed Zuka. Team advisors are Red River ALC teachers Aura Lee Mohror and Wylie Wisnewski, and mentors are Glen Meyer and Eric Surma from John Deere.

The Red River ALC team had six weeks to design, build and test a radio-controlled robot. The team competed against 19 other teams from the region to complete this year’s challenge, which required transporting wind turbine components to a construction site and assembling a wind turbine.

BEST, which stands for “Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology,” is designed to inspire students to consider careers in those fields. Besides the robotics competition, the student teams compete for the BEST Awards, which include a project engineering notebook documenting all work they have completed, a marketing presentation, the team exhibit and interview, and spirit and sportsmanship.