A group of young Coupeville and Oak Harbor robotic engineers in white lab coats will face other wizards of the craft at a global competition next week.

Monday morning, right after a long drive from the Pacific Northwest District Championship in Oregon, members and mentors of Team 2980 gathered at Oak Harbor High School during spring break to fine-tune their latest contraption, “Evb0t.”

That same night, the robot would be placed in a wooden box built by the students, then shipped to Houston, Texas, to compete at the 2025 FIRST World Championship April 16-19.

It was going to be one of many late nights the students have spent working on Evb0t since starting the project in January. Gideon Odeneal, a senior and member of the team, believes this dedication has been a key ingredient in the team’s success.

Earlier this year, Team 2980 was awarded the Engineering Inspiration Award at both the PNW District and the Glacier Peak Qualifier Championships — accomplishments that earned them a spot at the world championship.

This is the first time since 2018 that the team qualified for this prestigious event, and the fourth time since the team came to be in 2009, according to a group of students and mentors who spoke with the News-Times.

Making it to the world championship is no easy feat. To give an idea, there are over 130 teams in the PNW district alone and only two of them can win the district championship, said junior Allena Locklear.

The world championship, hosted by the global nonprofit FIRST (or “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”), won’t feature armored robots in a screeching struggle to destroy one another (and neither did the other competitions), but contraptions built for a good cause.

Every year, FIRST announces a new theme for the competition season. The 2025 theme is “REEFSCAPE,” inspired by the ocean’s coral reefs and technology’s potential to help nature heal and thrive.

In a YouTube video, FIRST explained the game will consists of two alliances, made up of three teams each, competing to earn points by using their robots in a simulated marine environment. The robots are tasked with harvesting algae and seeding coral into a reef. Additional points are given to alliances based on how well they cooperate with other teams.

Natalie Perera, a sophomore who is in charge of driving Evb0t, said the “coral” consists of 4-inch wide pipes that are put on the branches of a structure that acts as the reef, while the algae are 16-inch rubber balls that are sent to a processor and thrown into a net that is seven feet above the ground.

At the end of the game, the robots rush to the barge and are awarded additional points based on the type of barge they can secure themselves to. The alliance with the most points overall is crowned the winner of the match, according to FIRST.

Team 2980 will face roughly 600 teams from the U.S. and other countries, said Alison Perera, a mentor and volunteer in the Oak Harbor and Coupeville School Districts. With many skilled teams participating, the competition will be an exciting learning opportunity for Team 2980, she said.

Regardless of the outcome, the team is well aware of its worth. According to Mentor Logan Ince, the Whidbey Island Wildcats Robotics Club is one of the most recognizable and celebrated in the Pacific Northwest robotics community — and even beyond. Odeneal, for example, recounted walking around Seattle when he ran into a student engineer from West Virginia, who recognized his purple Wildcat hoodie.

The club is also well loved within the Oak Harbor and Coupeville communities, the students said.

“This is an incredibly special program,” Ince said. “There are not really very many robotics programs as committed to their community as this one.”

Over the past year, according to senior Valerie Gerdes, the Whidbey Island Robotics Team has built wheelchair ramps for the homes of community members with disabilities and built garden beds for the garden at Olympic View Elementary, among other things, delivering the club’s motto “We Say Yes!”

In March, Natalie Perera designed and built an adjustable vision assistance device for a student in need at Crescent Harbor Elementary after Principal Bill Weinsheimer reached out to Ince and fellow mentor Edozie Edoga.

The device can hold a tablet that helps the student zoom in on whiteboards and screens from his desk. According to a newsletter from the Oak Harbor School District, the student named it “The Claw.”

Now, the team is asking for the community’s help in raising $48,000 for the trip to Houston. With the cost of travel, lodging, meals and registration fees, each student needs about $2,000 to be able to participate, according to a press release from the robotics club.

Community members can contribute by donating to zeffy.com/fundraising/get-the-wildcats-to-worlds, or by attending the Spaghetti Dinner and Silent Auction from 5 to 7 p.m. this Saturday at the Oak Harbor Lutheran Church. A plate of spaghetti is $15, while the auction is optional. Donations and sponsorships are also welcome.

For more information and updates, visit the Whidbey Island Wildcats Robotics Club on Facebook or reach out to whidbeyrobotreasurer@gmail.com.

At left, Bella McGinty, Logan Ince, Tristan Nuanez, Tyler Sika and Isabelle Locklear pose by the wooden box in which they later placed Evb0t, which was shipped to Houston that night. (Photo by Luisa Loi)

Ninth grader Thorin Allen works on Evb0t, the robot he got to name after winning a pillow fight. Evb0t was named after the main character in a YouTube Minecraft movie. (Photo by Luisa Loi)

Oak Harbor Wildcat Thorin Allen and Coupeville Wolf Orion Liedtke get Evb0t ready for the world championship next week. After the competition and the off-season events, the robot will be taken apart so students can reuse its pieces, according to Mentor Alison Perera. (Photo by Luisa Loi)