The Ninja Stars FLL LEGO Division II Robotics team, sponsored by The University of Virginia’s College at Wise, won first place in the Abingdon Regional Competition on Saturday, Nov.10.

The Air Hats, another UVa-Wise sponsored team, won third place honors overall in Abingdon and will also compete in the state tournament. 

The victory marked the Ninja Stars’ second consecutive win in the regional competition. The Ninja Stars will travel to the Virginia/ Washington D.C. State competition in Harrisonburg, Va. The team won second place last year in the robotic performance category in the statewide competition.

The team is coached by Abrar Qureshi, professor of software engineering at UVa-Wise and Keith Fowlkes, UVa-Wise vice chancellor for information technology and CIO.

This is the first year for The Air Hats Division II team, who also won the award for best robotics design in the regional contest.  Daniel Ray, assistant professor of computer science at, coaches the Air Hats team UVa-Wise.

The Virginia/ D.C. State competition will be held on Dec. 8, 2012.