High School Students Design and Build VEX Robots at UCI MESA Camp

August 1, 2025 – Their end-product was a robotics classic: a rover that could manipulate and organize objects after autonomously navigating a randomized course. Starting from little more than a box of plastic parts and an empty Raspberry Pi, 39 high school students from across Southern California came to UCI to spend a week designing, fabricating, and racing 19 unique robots.

The Leadership, Engineering, and Fabrication — or LEAF — summer camp is a week-long residential program that not only teaches students every step to produce a VEX IQ robot, but also leadership and networking skills. The camp is a collaboration between four MESA programs in Southern California: Imperial Valley, San Diego State University, UC Irvine, and UC Riverside. It aims to inspire underrepresented youth to pursue their interests in science and engineering.

VEX IQ robots are small programmable robots built from snap-together plastic pieces, motors, and sensors designed for students to learn engineering and coding.  In addition to building their own robot, the students also designed and 3D printed attachment pieces for their claw-bot that aid their robot’s mobility in the race. Most students created attachments for the robot’s claw to enhance its ability to pick things up.

The students programmed their robots to navigate a course and perform tasks with speed and accuracy. It had to detect random colors by stopping or making a sound, turn at two checkpoints and pick up three cups one-by-one and stack them on the other side of the mat.

Dania Meling, a senior at Southwest High School in San Diego, appreciated learning skills such as coding and robot construction. “I want to major in mechanical engineering because I've always felt this passion and love for engineering and developed it a lot in high school because I joined VEX robotics,” said Meling who is the president of the Society of Women Engineers at her school. “I’m a first-generation student. I want to become an engineer and inspire other women to go into STEM."

Teamwork was a key facet of the robot-building experience, and the students enjoyed working with students from other schools. Christina Nguyen and Nathan Sandoval, juniors at Garden Grove High School and Southwest High School, said they bonded over robotics. Jasmin Nivera, president of the MESA Club at Morse High School in San Diego praised the engaging MESA community. “I joined the program because I like the community — I like MESA and the people in it.”

Nicole Patterson, the director of the MESA College Prep Program at UCI and a lead organizer of the pilot camp, said the goal of MESA is to give students interested in STEM hands-on projects to encourage them to pursue a STEM degree. “We focus on schools that sometimes are under-resourced so those students can have the same opportunities,” she said.

The camp also aimed to equip students for their academic careers moving forward. In addition to learning how to design and program a robot, the students toured UCI’s FABWorks and RapidTech to see the 3D printing, laser cutting, and materials fabrication processes firsthand. There were workshops on resume building and professional networking, and even the platforms the students worked with were intentional. “They learned CAD through OnShape, which is a free online platform that we specifically chose,” Patterson said. “When they go back home, they can continue learning.”

The MESA College Prep Program is a part of the Office of Outreach, Access and Inclusion at the UCI Samueli School of Engineering. The program aims to equip underrepresented students for success in pursuing STEM degrees and careers.

– Leo Garcia and Caroline Lu