Marcy, N.Y. - The first ever First Robotics Competition is being held this weekend at SUNY POLY in Marcy.

SUNY POLY Robotics Coordinator Janice Martino says it took a lot of doing to get SUNY POLY certified to be able to host such a competition, but she says all of the work was well worth it, "We have 35 teams from as far away as China and Taipei."

The international competition called the Central New York 2018 First Robotics Competition came to the Mohawk Valley for the past three days, and Martino says it brought about 2,500 people to the area, including teams from all over the United States.

First is a not-for-profit organization devoted to helping young people discover and develop a passion for science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM.

Each team of high school students has six months to build the electrical board, test the program and build a 125 pound robot to compete on the field."

Martino says although the students are high school students, they do have some help, "They have college and professional experts on their teams and professional engineering mentors on the team."

The winners of this three day event get to compete in the international finals in April in Detroit.