EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Franklin High School’s Robotics Program is making noise as two of its teams find themselves ranked in the top 100 of the World TrueSkill Rankings by VRC RoboScout, an app that measures the performance of high-school robotics teams at VEX robotic competition tournaments throughout the year.  Courtesy of Daniel Quinones One of their upperclassmen teams, which goes by the name Genesis, is composed of four juniors and currently ranks No. 2 out of a pool of over 10,000 teams.  Their freshmen team - the Oriental Express - currently ranks as No. 86 in that same pool.  "I'm proud of all of them. They all work hard. I strive to put that competitiveness in them -- that they're going to compete no matter what. Even if your robot breaks, you got to set it down and get out there and try to do something. Get in somebody's way," said Daniel Quinones, Franklin’s computer science teacher and both teams’ adviser.  Quinones said no high school in the Borderland has ever had a robotics team place this high in the rankings before.  VEX competitions “consist of matches played on a 12 by 12 square field. Two alliances, composed of two teams each, compete in matches consisting of an autonomous period followed by a driver controlled period. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance,” according to the Robotics Education and Competition (REC) Foundation.  The REC Foundation manages the VEX Robotics World Championship -- the pinnacle of robotics competitions held at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, TX --  and it is the “largest and fastest-growing” robotics engineering platform, according to their website.  The rankings work as a form of power rating, measuring where the robotics teams stand at a specific point in the year, and an indicator of how their robot might stack up later in the year.  The Genesis team has won four VEX tournament championships this school year, and the Oriental Express team has won three VEX tournament championships, all of which were local. But the teams still have bigger stages ahead which they are gearing up for. They will be competing in the University Interscholastic League’s (UIL) 2025 RECF-VEX Robotics Pilot Championship -- the Texas state tournament -- and regional tournaments where they will look to punch their ticket to the REC’s VEX Robotics World Championship once again.  “When we came back from worlds (VEX World Championship), we felt really disappointed. Since we were (eliminated) early on, we didn't get to the dome (final stage),” said Brian Tseng, the strategist for team Genesis.  Franklin's Robotics team at the 2024 VEX Robotics World Championship - Courtesy of Daniel Quinones The strategist on the team stands by the “driver” who controls the robot in a given match.  Tseng said that their disappointing finish at the world championship last year in Dallas fueled them to work tirelessly so that they can finally reach the “dome.” “In order (to reach the dome), we started (working) early in May and throughout the entire summer. And so by the time we compete, we're already at the highest level that we can get to,” Tseng said.  Robotics teams have to design, build, and program a robot that they will put out on the field to compete at tournaments throughout the year.  As the robot goes through competitions and wears down, the teams have to build new versions of the robot based on their original design so that they can continue to compete the rest of the season.  “Robotics is not just a competition. I’d say it’s a mentality -- a mentality to pursue your dreams, not just here in the high school level, but up there in college. I feel that with what we’ve been able to achieve, we’re going to achieve more and more in our daily lives in the future,” said Gabriel Villela, the “coder” for team Genesis, who wants to pursue a career in computer engineering.  “I want to make Franklin High School and El Paso known around the world. When we travel, not really anyone knows about El Paso, but I'm trying to get us up there,” said Jonah Cuellar, the “driver” for team Genesis, who wants to pursue a career in aerospace or biomedical engineering.  “I get here sometimes as early as seven in the morning. I'm just practicing how we're going to drive in the arena, (practicing) things that I'm going to do in competition, (imagining) scenarios in my head and making sure I'm ready mentally and physically to compete and give it my best,” Cuellar said.  Meanwhile, Noah Hsieh, a freshman and team captain for the Oriental Express, said they look up to team Genesis and try to learn from their experience, but are just as determined to succeed on their own.  “You always want to beat your bigger brother,” Hsieh said. “Checking out other people’s (robot) designs, people that are top in the world, that gives you an idea of what the expectations are. We stay here (school) every single day until like 7 p.m., just working and coding. Hard work does really pay off and we believe that if we communicate well, we can get anything done,” Hsieh said. Quinones -- Franklin's computer science teacher -- said that robotics has grown exponentially in the Borderland, and their success is great indicator of the resources that are being poured into STEAM programs in the El Paso Independent School District. "I just want to give thanks to our school district for for backing us up, our superintendent, assistant superintendent, our Computer Technology Department, Mr. Marcus, especially. (Marcus) makes sure we get the (tools and equipment) that we need. And, of course, our principal here at the school that allowed us to put this club together, travel and, be successful," Quinones said.