The SA BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology) competition is a contest held annually to inspire and interest students in the fields of science and engineering. With guidance from adult mentors, local teams of students design and build a remote controlled machine to accomplish a specific task. The students are given a box of raw materials from which to build the machine and 6 weeks to design and construct it. The task of the robot is kept secret until Kick-off Day, when all the teams are told what the robot is required to do. On Competition Day, all schools will compete head-on with each other in a thrilling science-fair-turned-sports-event. Several teams advance to the regional Texas Best competition and compete with the BEST robots from other areas.