This is the kind of thing that really makes robotics fun and exciting for folks. The blend of hardware and software. It is a lot of fun and the multiple disciplines make it more fun in groups than as a solo activity.
Check out the three options under "Programs". I was heavily involved with this as a mentor (FRC) many years ago. Our team went all the way up to nationals. The program is international in nature. The national championship had teams from absolutely everywhere.
Did I mention I was the President of the Homebrew Robotics Club[1] for 10 years? :-) That said, FIRST is excellent and I mentored the Fremont HS team one year.
One of my favorite thing about robotics is when people go from something in software to something that is actually built. Sensors are "noisy" in the real world, and HBRC has a great series of challenges that are designed to get people to actually build robots (and for that they need to span the easily grasped to the more complex). A number of kids that came to the club when I was running the meetings went on to top engineering schools, always gratifying to see them take off like that.
Yup, quite a few of our team members went on to top universities for a range of disciplines. Some are doing PhD research at places like MIT and the other top schools known for robotics and CS. I still remember teaching some of them how to drill a hole in my garage (we sometimes met there because the school simply didn’t have the resources I could contribute). Heck, I taught some of the kids now doing PhD work how to program. That was always fun and deeply rewarding.
