The Nifty Engineering Robotics Design Squad (NERDS for short) is a high school robotics team in Sierra Vista, Arizona. The NERDS team was formed in fall of 2005 by Buena High School chemistry teacher Tom Heller, mentor Kent Cudaback, and several students. After a few months spent playing with vEx robot kits, they built their first FIRST Robotics Competition robot in January, 2006, and entered it in two competitions that spring. They won the second in Sacramento, California. This meant they could go to the Championship event in Atlanta, Georgia, so they appealed to the community and found the money needed to go.

In the summer of 2006, the NERDS put on two vEx camps for local middle school students. Then, in the fall, they entered two vEx robots in the FIRST vEx Challenge regional competition in Phoenix and won. January of 2007 saw them building another big robot for the FRC regionals in Pheonix and Sacramento, as well as entering the Autodesk animation contest. They did pretty well in Phoenix, winning several awards and ending the event as regional finalists. The students who worked on the FVC robot also went to the Championship event in Atlanta.

Summer 2007 started with a quick three week build of an underwater robot for the National Underwater Robotics Challenge in Phoenix. The NERDS won this combined high school/college competition. They then held two more vEx camps for local kids.