Congratulations on the 2nd place finish! Robotics is an area that's growing quickly with a lot of hard software engineering problems to tackle. It's also home to some great open source projects (OpenCV, PCL, ROS, to name a few). I think we're going to see more robotics firms looking to industry rather than academia for hiring, technology, and process (as you mention) as the field matures. I know that's the case at Bot & Dolly, where I work; at the moment we're looking for engineers with significant C++ and 3D/UI experience more than robotics expertise (www.botndolly.com/jobs). I can't emphasize enough how far these jobs are from cranking out web application features -- we're really at the cusp of something big at the physical/digital divide, and there's a ton of room for talented developers to contribute. Please get in touch with any questions.