Thousands of students compete in international robotics competition

(FOX 2) - There are tens of thousands of people this weekend at Ford Field and Cobo Center but it’s not for a sporting event.

 A massive robotics competition invaded Detroit as 17-thousand students from around the world visited for the event. 

This is a culmination of a year of effort by the students who were challenged in January. More than 600-thousand kids compete in K-12 programs leading up to this moment. 

This year’s theme was “deep space,” everyone had six weeks to design and build their robot and compete in teams.

Robotics helps kids build skills for life like team management as well as math and science. 

The competition generated an average of $30 million in economic activity for Detroit.