Area schools to compete in VEX Robotics challenge
More than 300 leading middle and high school VEX Robotics students and mentors from around the state will unite at Rotolo Middle School Saturday, March 7, for the Illinois Vex Robotics State Championship.
The tournament will feature more than 40 teams who will compete with and against other schools in a series of back-to-back robot challenges. Participants will compete for the championship title by strategically executing the game SkyRise, driving robots they designed, built and programmed from the ground up using the VEX Robotics Design System.
VEX SkyRise is played on a 12-by-12-foot square field. Two alliances - one "red" and one "blue" - composed of two teams each, compete in matches consisting of a 15-second autonomous period, followed by one minute and 45 seconds of driver-controlled play.
The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by scoring your colored cubes in floor goals, on posts or on your Skyrise by owning posts and by building your Skyrise sections.
There are a total of 44 cubes, 22 red and 22 blue, and 14 Skyrise sections available.
Each robot (smaller than 18-by-18-by-18 inches to start) begins a match on one of their alliance starting tiles.
There are 10 posts and four floor goals that robots can score objects onto. The alliance with the topmost cube on a post owns the post. Alliances also earn points for building Skyrises on their Skyrise base out of Skyrise sections, and scoring cubes on Skyrises. A bonus is awarded to the alliance that has the most total points at the end of the autonomous period.
The Illinois Vex Robotics State Championship is one of a series of VEX Robotics Competitions taking place internationally throughout the year. VEX Robotics is the world's fastest growing competitive robotics program for elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and colleges around the world, with more than 7,700 teams from 30 countries that participate in more than 400 VEX Robotics Competition events worldwide.
The competition season culminates each spring, with the highly anticipated VEX Robotics Competition World Championship event, uniting top qualifying teams from local, state and international VEX Robotics Competitions.
"The technological economy of the future depends on equipping today's youth with the tools necessary to become tomorrow's leading innovators," said Ron Karabowicz, event organizer from Fox Valley Robotics/Batavia Robotics.
"This tournament provides kids with an engaging hands-on learning experience that promotes a passion for science and technology - instilling in them an appreciation for the field and an enthusiasm to pursue STEM-related education and careers."
Fox Valley Robotics/Batavia Robotics will be hosting the state championship for the second consecutive year. Teams that will be attending this event will have prequalified from one of the other events held around the state between November and February. From this event, six teams will be heading to Kentucky for the world competition.
The VEX Robotics Competition is managed by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation and serves as a vehicle for students to develop critical life skills such as teamwork, leadership and project management, honed through building robots and competing with like-minded students from the community in a pulse-pounding, exciting, nontraditional environment.
The VEX Robotics Design System was built from the ground up and designed to be an affordable, accessible and scalable platform used to teach science, technology, engineering and math education worldwide.
The event will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 7, at Rotolo Middle School, 1501 S. Raddant Road, Batavia. Admission is free and the public is welcome.
For more information, visit www.foxvalleyrobotics.com/vexstate.
Batavia Robotics is a nonprofit organization since 2002. In 2007, to offer the program and incorporate kids from multiple communities, the name Fox Valley Robotics was added. Today, more than 175 kids participate in three divisions of robotics.
The LegoWolves Division is for the first- to third-graders, the LegoDogs Division is for fourth- to eighth-graders, and the Coyotes Division is for eighth- to 12th-graders.