In the basement of a Highlands Ranch home, in a neighborhood of winding streets and cul-de-sacs, the Millennium Falcon sits shrouded in Roswell-type secrecy.

Its rail-thin designers and marketers who range in age from 14-18 form a tight circle around their creation. They block a photographer from taking images of the Falconscustom chassis and four-motor chain drive.

They fear photos of their latest design will leak into cyberspace and inform rivals of what theyre cooking up for the impending Super Bowl of high school robotics.

We really dont want anyone to see any recent changes we have made, said Spencer Gregg, whose mother is the coach of Team #6929 Data Force and is harboring the Falcon. She takes Spencer aside to make a case for a news photographers access to the teams hard work, but he holds firm. Visitors can observe the robot in action, but there will be no photos today.

No doubt, Data Force team members are nervous about the upcomingFestival of Champions,scheduled July 28 and 29 in New Hampshire. There, the teens and the Falcon will meet TeamRedneck Robotics, made up of students from Fairfield, Great Falls and Sun River Valley in Montana.

They are ranked just a few percentage points above us, said Spencer Gregg.

About 15,000 K-12 students from 33 countries face off in the annualFIRST robotics championships. The students design, build and program robots in a matter of weeks to compete in specific challenges.

Robots in the FIRST Robotics Competition, the highest level, are challenged to hang gears on hooks and climb a rope while fending off potential blocks from rival robots.

Data Forcewon the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship in St. Louis in April. The event featured 128 national and international teams, narrowed from a field of 5,000. Rednecks Robotics won the FIRST Tech Challenge in Houston in April.

FIRST organizers hope to crown an ultimate world champion when the teams meet at the New Hampshire competition.

Hence, Data Forces secrecy. Coach Paree Gregg, whose two sons are on the team, said this is one of few Colorado teams to come away with a world championship in the 25-year history of the robotics showdown.

This is a big deal for these kids, and a big deal for the state, said Gregg.

Like its movie namesake, the Millennium Falcon is built for speed.It scoots along at about 2.5 mph and can shoot out four particle balls in 1.53 seconds. Its equipped with a small forklift that can scoop up and deposit a 2.5-pound yoga ball into a nearly 6-foot-high tower in 4 seconds.

The robot weighs 30 pounds and is the size of a large cardboard box. Its built to maneuver in a 12-by-12-foot square enclosed with foot-high walls, a space it must share with as many as three other robots.Theobject of competition is to successfully perform several tasks and thereby outscore your opponent.

At times, drivers control the robots. During the rest of a match robots operate only according to pre-programmed instructions. The matches can draw thousands of spectators, and although the robots are not equipped with phasers or flame throwers, opponents are known to bump each other to throw off a shot.

It can get pretty intense, said Spencer Gregg.

The Falcon is brimming with new equipment that should give it an edge in July, say team members.

Its really an improvement over what we built last year, said Kaushik Kaja, 14, the youngest member of Data Force. And thats the whole idea behind the competition, to change and improve from the past year.

Engineer Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, started FIRST the acronym for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology in 1989 in hopes of sparking interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics among kids.

Besides learning how to design, code and build robots, FIRST competitors also must employ soft skills, including producing a business plan, raising money and conducting community outreach for their project.

So far, Data Force members have raised $7,000 for their endeavor. They have also recruited sponsors, including State Farm, Baxter, Ingram Machining, RC Hobbies, Macys and King Soopers.

This is not just technical work, saidGregg. Theyve also had to harness and learn new skills to make this work.

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Colorado robotics team takes world championship, eyes next opponent - The Denver Post