Waialua and McKinley high schools and China Urban Youth Robotics Alliance from Shanghai were named the winners at the FIRST Robotics Competition Hawaii Regional held Friday and Saturday at the University of Hawaii’s Stan Sheriff Center.

Thirty-­six international high school teams competed for a chance to participate in the world championships April 17-20 in Houston. Along with the three regional winners, four other teams — ‘Iolani, Molokai, Maui and Maryknoll — will head to the world championships.

To compete in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition regional, high school students worked over a six-week period with professional mentors to design and build a robot that solved a specific problem.