Carolina Strong: Matthews is home to an international champion robotics team

They call themselves the Infinite Turtles but make no mistake, there’s nothing slow about them -- not their wits, their hands, or their robots.

Twelve high schoolers make up the squad. Like any team, each player brings his or her own strengths: coding, design, business development, and the list goes on.

“Exploring a lot of those crazier ideas can really be exciting,” Lucas Yuan told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke.

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“If you have a really strong passion for code and programming, then you have people who are doing that just on the living room couch,” Viraj Chopra said.

The organizers of the global program announce a challenge every September. Teams from around the world have a few months to design and build their robots.

“Many people think it’s just BattleBots. You’re just competing against each other. But it’s a lot more than that,” Coach Leena Dave told Stoogenke. “Spreading the STEM awareness, but at the same time building character through what they call core values ... innovation, discovery, gracious professionalism.”

The Turtles were North Carolina champs three years in a row and took a number of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishes at Worlds.

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“By far the best thing about Infinite Turtles is the learning experience,” Yuan said. “Just pure exhilaration.”

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