Students from schools across the Bay area spent hours playing with cutting edge science and technology equipment on Friday.

Baxter, a robot equipped with artificial-like intelligence was featured inside the University of South Florida's CART lab, as part of the university's  2014 Engineering EXPO.

"Robots have a very good processing power, so they can process this very quickly and find out different possibilities by the numbers," said Professor of Research Redwan Alqasemi.

Baxter has seven jointed arms just like a human being. Multiple cameras act as the robots eyes and software installed acts as artificial intelligence, allowing the robot to think up to four moves ahead.

Apopka Middle School eighth grader Niall Lowe was confident he would win against the robot. As Lowe played he said he was getting nervous because he was "trying to know what [the robot was] thinking."

Nearly 10 minutes later Lowe walked away surprised Baxter had beat him.

Student Daniela Quindana lost to Baxter in a game of Connect Four, too. Afterward she told us she "felt cheated."

Cheated, maybe.  But inspired? Definitely.

How does it work? How can you build a robot like Baxter? Those are the questions the university hopes kids are asking after they leave the EXPO.

USF's Engineering Expo is open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Saturday.  Admission is free.