Two mid-valley teams brought home trophies from the Intel FIRST Lego League state tournament in Hillsboro on Sunday, where more than 400 budding engineers aged 9 to 14 put their Lego robots through a series of tasks.

The Corvallis RoboTreaders took first place in the research quality division, while the Bulldogs, from Sutherlin, won second place honors in the robust design category. Other local teams that competed in the finals after qualifying in a regional tourney last month were the Engineers and the Xaviers from Corvallis and the HollyBots from Sweet Home. The Memorial Robotics Team from Albany was unable to make the trip due to icy road conditions.

The theme of this year's competition was "No Limits." Students were challenged to develop ways to improve accessibility and mobility for people with disabilities. The robots were evaluated on their ability to navigate hurdles that people with disabilities face every day.

Judges evaluated the teams in several categories based on the students' understanding of robotic technology and programming, robot performance and research presentations.

For their presentation, the RoboTreaders did a puppet show presenting their findings about accessibility at the Osborn Aquatic Center.

They concluded that, while the pool does have lifts allowing people who use wheelchairs to enter, accessibility would improve if the center switched to remote-controlled lifts (wheelchair users need assistance to operate the current lifts).