Frank Speziale photo

OXFORD – The second annual RoboRAVE New York, an international robotics competition held at Oxford Academy High School, drew hundreds of spectators and teams from across the world on Saturday.

Event organizers say 174 students registered to participate in the competition, along with 22 coaches, and anywhere from 200 to 300 spectators. Participants in the robotics competition ranged from age 7 to age 50. Organizers say they had to open the event into a second room and build additional robotics tracks in order to accomodate everyone in attendance.

"We had easily over 300 people in that room," said RoboRAVE New York co-founder and Oxford educator Mark Muller. "We had to build more tracks, it was amazing. It was great. The thing that made me happy was, we had kindergarteners participating, and we had adults participating, and everything in between."

At the first RoboRAVE New York in 2018, 60 participants from across the country participated in the event at Oxford Academy High School. This year, teams from France and Canada traveled to Oxford for the robotics competition and were greeted by Oxford students-turned-ambassadors. Student teams from Egypt and Turkmenistan were also interested in attending, but could not make it due to issues with their visas, Muller said.