All prizes are monetary and range from $10 to $750.

The engineering design competition has grown tremendously in the last few years with the increased interest in robotics. The engineering aspect is a discipline that has reached down to the junior high level within the last few years. We've added a junior high level because the kids are sophisticated enough to build their own robots.

Judges can come from the community; they don't have to be scientists.

We send our students on to the Houston Science Fair. We have students compete in state competitions every year.

Some end up with patents.

I feel for the sponsors (HSBC) because they put up a lot of money. This is the richest first prize in all of golf (one million pounds).