The Cannon Falls Robotics team will get an early start this Thursday morning as they leave for their second competition this year. At 5:30 am they leave for Cedar Falls, Iowa to compete against several other robotics teams at the University of Iowa. If they win first place, the team has the opportunity to attend and compete at the World Championship in Detroit. The world competition is being held where robotics was first started according to senior participant, Nathan VanZuilen. CF Robotics will return on Saturday night after competing at the competition called First Robotics Competition Iowa Regional. This year’s team is led by Joe Coyle and David Engebretson and has about 30 members. Their jobs include accountants, programmers, builders, and administrators. Each week the team practices about 2-3 times for 3 hours each. Cannon Falls Robotics is labeled 6217 which means it was the 6,217th team to join robotics in the world. VanZuilen estimates there to be about 8,000 teams worldwide. At this competition there are 2 alliances- red and blue. On each there are 3 teams, like Cannon Falls for example. Those teams work with their allies to beat the other alliances. Whoever wins scores ranking points which puts the team higher in the standings. CF Robotics is very excited for Cedar Falls and hopes to earn a spot in Detroit in April.