The 17-year-old St. Martin Secondary School student said he likes standing out in a crowd.

If that means dressing up in safety glasses and a yellow T-shirt with "Nerdbotics" emblazoned on it, he doesn't mind.

"We're smart and there's nothing bad about it," said Skorbach. "It's the coolest thing in the world."

Skorbach and his St. Martin mates are one of four Mississauga high school teams that built a robot for a competition this weekend at the Hershey Centre.

Some 74 teams are entered in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Regional Competition.

Teams from Rick Hansen, Lorne Park and Gordon Graydon Secondary Schools round out the Mississauga contingent. They will match wits with fellow nerds from across Canada, the United States and England, competing in a game organizers call "a modified version of basketball."

The objective is to design, build and test a robot to play basketball. Competition begins today when the robots hit the court to shoot hoops.

Vance Scott, director of FIRST Robotics Canada, said the event is about inspiring youth.

"It's so much more than a robotics competition," he said. "They learn teamwork, they learn time management, they get excited, they see all the different opportunity in science and technology and they have a lot of fun."

Aravind Ramanathan, a member of the Rick Hansen team that has won several awards, said he's looking forward to the event.

"I enjoy the spirit about the competition. It isn't all about winning, it's more about being professional," said Ramanathan, an aspiring engineer. "It's about co-operating with other teams, helping them out, more of getting to know other people, engineering, having a good attitude and having something to be inspired about."

Skorbach has also put in a lot of preparation time.

"It kind of gives you the feeling that you accomplished something," he said. "You get a lot of hands-on experience...and you get a lot of girls."

This marks the sixth year the competition has been held at the Hershey Centre. Scott said it has become a great success.

"Companies see how powerful (this competition) is. General Motors (GM) is one of our biggest sponsors, sponsoring nine teams," said Scott. "And, not only do they sponsor, but they hire (the students), too."

The top seven teams from this weekend's event will advance to the world championships in Atlanta on April 27.