SAUGUS — While the Belmonte Bullbots and the Techno Titans, the two teams representing the Belmonte STEAM Academy at the Lego League Robotics Competition in December, may not have taken home the top prize, there is no shortage of enthusiasm for robotics in the town’s schools. However, the program is limited to only students at the Belmonte. It does not continue beyond the 5th grade, leading the team’s coach, Bill Palmerini, to lobby for increased funding to ensure its continuation.

Palmerini, also the president of the union representing the town’s teachers, said the robotics program began seven years ago with funding supplied by a three-year grant secured by state Rep. Donald Wong, who represents the town. When the grant funds ran out, former Superintendent David DeRuosi opted to continue the program, though expansion plans have remained tabled.

Only 16 students are selected to participate in the program, many of whom join a summer program taught by Palmerini that serves as a feeder for the school year. But demand is much higher, according to Palmerini, who said the program regularly draws interest from more than 50 students. This year, all 16 students are in 5th grade at the BSA, where Palmerini and Trudy Williamson are both teachers.

Each year, students are tasked with assembling a series of missions out of Legos and placing them on a playing field. From there, students must assemble robots capable of completing the missions on the field, which include actions like pressing buttons and pulling levers, and design and build attachments to help them do so.

“As they worked on the missions, they would make changes and create their own attachments,” Williamson said. “So there’s the actual robot itself, and then there are the pieces that they attach that do lifts, pushes, and pulls.”

Students must write codes to get the Legos to complete the necessary actions. Those codes are then ported to a hub, which is connected to the robots and serves as a brain.

At the competition, students were given just two-and-a-half minutes to complete missions.

Haleigh McKanas, one of the students in the program, described the competition atmosphere as serious but fun.

“It was competitive, but it was also fun to be there with your friends and kind of just explore the competition and how it really goes,” she said. “It’s fun, but you have to take it seriously … and [do] your job.”

Palmerini noted that Saugus didn’t come home entirely empty-handed from the competition — the students won the Gracious Professionalism Award, a mark he said he and Williamson were incredibly proud of them for achieving.

The reasons students cited for wanting to join the team in the first place varied, with some expressing prior interest in legos and coding and others having far less direct experience.

John Benoit said he signed up because he wants to be an engineer when he gets older. He said he has enjoyed the team atmosphere cultivated in the program.

“I like the teammates. They’re really nice,” he said. “Sometimes it gets a little crazy, but I like the company.”

Cole Gosselin, the captain of the Techno Titans team, said his brother had been a part of the program in the past, giving him a first-hand look at what the experience might be like.

“I wanted to do it when he was there, but I couldn’t because I was in third grade. And then when the opportunity came, I signed up for it because I thought it’d be fun,” he said. “I don’t like playing with Legos, but I love coding. Now I’m starting to get into Legos.”

John Condakes said he likes building Legos in his free time, seeing it as a way to gain additional experience that may prove helpful for robotics.

“I like coding, making stuff on my own,” he said.

While no plans are finalized, Palmerini said there is talk of a middle school robotics program getting off the ground in the near future. If the students on the teams are to be believed, there would certainly be no difficulty in recruitment if that came to pass.