South Bay Kids To Compete On BattleBots Show

PALOS VERDES, CA — What's more exciting than sparks flying, flames and robot battles? Seeing local South Bay kids building their own fighting robot on BattleBots. Students from Rolling Robots, a non-profit robotics school in Palos Verdes, will be featured on the show, which airs on the Discovery Channel this Friday at 8 p.m.

On average, BattleBots gets between 1 to 1.5 million views per episode, so it's a great opportunity to showcase a local non-profit, Paul Saluzzi, Business Director of Rolling Robots, told Patch. South Bay locals should tune into the episode tomorrow night because Rolling Robots supports the local economy by creating plenty of jobs in the community, he said.

"You have 20 percent of our local economy depending on the Port of Los Angeles, so it is essential that kids start learning STEM and robotics," Saluzzi said. "This is basically looking into the future — seeing kids who are not spending three hours a day at basketball practice or football or dance. Instead, they’re spending three hours a day learning tech skills."

Students at Rolling Robots are between the ages of 6 and 18, and many end up at top technical schools in the country, Saluzzi said. Rolling Robots kids work on all aspects of building a robot: from coding, to engineering the chips and building to motor.

"I see 10-year-old kids coding a robot, they’ve started a track to learn very young," he said. "They’re learning skills they’ll use for life."

Sixty percent of their students start at 6 years old, and stay with Rolling Robots until they turn 18, Saluzzi said.

Palos Verdes is the first Rolling Robots location, and opened 10 years ago. They have now expanded to four locations across Los Angeles and have about 500 students enrolled full-time. They offer workshops like Fun with Technology, Mech-Robots, Bots with Brains, Video Game Design and more.

"When college admissions look at a high school student who has gone through our program and put thousands of hours in, they understand the young adult is serious," he said. "They won’t have to teach them the basics of STEM and engineering, and it shows the student is motivated to succeed."

One of the most beneficial parts of Rolling Robots is that it teaches children how to adapt to a changing economy. Technology is expanding into every sector — from Amazon merging with Whole Foods to Google in television, Saluzzi said.

One billion jobs will be replaced by robots by 2030, he said, and as people lose jobs, they’re going to have to be trained in technology so the technology advances. Although technology is displacing jobs, it is also creating opportunity, Saluzzi said.

"I got involved here because I see the opportunity to start to teach kids the future. They're going to need technical skills," Saluzzi said. "As these kids get out into the workforce with more and more tech jobs, there will be less training for other professions."

Rolling Robots will be featured on BattleBots on the Discovery Channel at 8 p.m. this Friday, July 19.