Frankfort Teen Wins First Place At Robotics Competition

FRANKFORT, IL — Frankfort resident Luke He has been involved with robotics since he was in elementary school.

The Lincoln-Way East freshman recently competed in the Southworks Engineering and Robotics Olympics, hosted at South Suburban College, and took home first place in the Sumo Survivor 15-pound division, his mom, Ren Li, told Patch.

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Luke participated in the competion as Center for Future Innovators-Frankfort Community team. CFI Robotics NFP is a community robotics program in Blue Island.

Li told Patch this was not Luke's first compeition, and he first became interested in robotics when he was in third grade.

"Over time, his interest grew from just building to robot design, programming and competition strategy," Li said. "He also now helps coach younger students and teaches coding and robotics classes in our community."

Luke earned first place in the Sumo Survivor division. Li said he designed and built his winning robot himself, and he individually researched, sourced and tested nearly every major component. He also used custom 3D-designed parts in the robot.

At the recent competition, Luke also earned second place in the Pathfinder event with his teammate, Jack.