Technology companies all over the country are finding it harder than ever to harvest new talent out of universities, so one local company is planting a few more seeds.

Tata Consultancy Services in Milford recently hosted 27 high school students at a two day technology camp. The students from Clermont Northeastern and Milford broke into four teams and spent the first day learning programming techniques and how to solve problems. The second day was spent using that knowledge to program robots. 

Those robots, called “finches,” then competed in hill climbing and an obstacle course. The winners got prizes, of course, and everyone got a trophy. But that was the short term gain for the students. The long term gain, and the purpose of the camp, was to stimulate their interest in the computer science field.