Comment by kens

And if you're in high school, join a First Robotics team. (In First Robotics, teams build a moderately large robot that can zip around a field, grabbing things and shooting balls for instance. It's like a competitive sport but with robots competing. The robots are controlled by drivers, but can also act autonomously for more points. The task is different each year, with sub-tasks of varying levels of difficulty, so teams with widely different skill levels can take part: some robots are very simple while others are amazingly complicated. It's a great way for high schoolers to learn engineering skills, anything from programming to mechanical engineering.)