LOS ANGELES — In January, the number of container ships waiting to dock at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach stood at 109, but the Marine Exchange of Southern California currently estimates there are 50 still waiting as of March 9.

While there has been progress, more is still needed, and that means it will be up to a younger generation to come up with new ideas.

That is why the Port of Hueneme collaborated with FIRST Robotics to host a high school robotics competition at Fathomwerx, which is housed on the port’s property.

Fathomwerx is a public-private consortium (comprising the Port, Economic Development Collaborative, Naval Base Ventura County and Matter Labs) where maritime and supply chain issues can be addressed using technology.

The Rapid React Challenge pushed high school robotics teams to compete and improve high-speed transportation and cargo logistics.

High school freshman Annie So spent many long days with her student robotics team to bring their creation, titled “2637,” to competition.

“I feel like this is a nerdy way to put this, but it’s basically a sports team,” said So.

As the group’s main strategist, So had to figure out the quickest way to score points. The remote-controlled vessels can throw balls into the goal and climb metal bars to earn points. Each task is weighted differently and must be completed in a short amount of time.

“The game, it’s like traveling cargo and transporting it, so it just gets us a lot into thinking about specific aspects of real-life application, especially in designing,” said So.

This is a movement and transportation-based challenge, and it is being held at the Port of Hueneme.

The port’s chief operations officer, Christina Birdsey, said innovation is needed and it could come from anywhere.

“We’ve seen something just as simple as the container change the way goods were moved. I kind of even joked in this robotics competition you saw what they’re considering cargo was balls. Who knows? It could change the way that you move cargo,” said Birdsey. 

Over the past six months, Birdsey said imports and exports have continued to rise at the Port of Hueneme. Although it is a lot smaller than the San Pedro ports, it has helped to relieve some of the pressure from these busier places.

The effort to continue chipping away at the cargo congestion is no short-term project.

“I’m hoping that a lot of these future engineers stay and understand the importance of being in the supply chain and moving cargo,” said Birdsey.

Given what students can achieve for just a game, imagine the possibilities when the stakes are even higher.