Dunedin High School students learning robotics and drone building during four-year program

DUNEDIN, Fla. - While most students are looking forward to summer and not having to do school work, the robotics and drone builders from Dunedin High School are preparing for the Skills USA Nationals coming up in June.

The students in the Robotics, Engineering and Steam Program can earn up to four industry certifications by the time they graduate.

"It's a four-year program, and they start out as freshmen learning the fundamentals of engineering pre-engineering type things, mechanical engineering. They do get to dabble in the different projects and competitions, and that's where the learning starts, right there. Once they start competing and doing projects, they see all the things that they've been learning, how they come together to become real-world stuff," explained Instructor Judith Deeley.

The competitions show the students how their ideas play out in the real world.

"This won silver at Skills USA Urban Search and Rescue," said Freshman Elijah Miller. "What we were given to do was, we had to make a robot to go out and find those explosives."

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"That is an emulation of a minefield or a police officer going out and having to detonate something that has been called in as a bomb. So, they're learning how to protect the human being through the robotics. That's the purpose," said Deeley.

Miller's creation won that recognition at the competition, but he hopes that it will cross over to a professional career.

"This will help me get almost any, any job in the engineering field I want," he said. "Just the sheer fact that I get to do that, started at 14, just the sheer fact that I got to do that is amazing."

His classmate, Levi Alexander Smith is a senior. For him, the program is different.

"It's a creative outlet for me," he stated.

What he's learned in the robotics program will apply to his career in the future.

"It would mostly apply to any manufacturing companies that use automated technology," shared Smith.

Deeley knows that the toys of yesterday are becoming the tools of tomorrow and drones have been increasingly becoming a part of her classes.

Junior Tanay Patel was more than happy to try his hand at using drones.

"I have always had an interest in robotics and especially drones," he said. "I also do photography, so it's also a very different view from the air you cannot get on the ground. So, it's that, and also it's very fun to fly in, very interesting, like a work of art."

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That interest proved to be pretty serious as he and his partner Dylan Cummings made an impression at their last competition.

"We won gold and are now going to nationals in Atlanta," he said.

To learn more about the Dunedin High School Engineering and Robotics team, click here.

The SkillsUSA National Competition is taking place in June. To learn more, click here.

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