Young innovators gear up for local VEX robotics competition Saturday
More than 300 leading high school VEX Robotics students and mentors from around the state will unite at Rotolo Middle School Saturday, March 11, for the Illinois Vex Robotics High School State Championship.
The action-packed tournament will feature 36 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 Starstruck, driving robots they designed, built and programmed from the ground up using the VEX Robotics Design System.
VEX Robotics Competition Starstruck is played on a 12- by 12-feet 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-five seconds of driver control led play. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by scoring your Stars and Cubes in your zones and by hanging robots on your hanging bar.
There are 24 Stars and four Cubes, available in match. Some begin in designated locations on the field, while others are available to be entered into the field during the match.
Each robot, smaller than 18 inches by 18 inches begins a match on one of their alliance starting tiles. Each alliance has two zones across the fence to score into. Alliances also earn points for having one robot hanging at the end of the match from their hanging bar. 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 part of a series of VEX Robotics Competitions taking place nationally and 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 16,000 teams from 40 countries that participate in more than 1,300 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 robots that students build and the competitions that they compete in are an inspiration to see," said Ron Karabowicz, event organizer from Fox Valley Robotics/Batavia Robotics. "The VEX Robotics Competition provides kids with an engaging hands-on learning experience that instills a passion for science and technology which encourages them to pursue STEM-related education and careers. We are honored to be part of this program to support our students interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics by organizing the VEX Robotics Competition High School State Championship."
Fox Valley Robotics/Batavia Robotics will host the state championship for the fifth year. Teams that will be attending this event will have pre‐qualified from one of the other events held around the state between November and February. Nine teams from the high school championship will be heading to Kentucky for the world competition in April.
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 an intense and exciting environment. VEX Robotics inspires students to become the problem solving heroes of tomorrow.
VEX EDR offers students a rich and exciting platform to immerse themselves in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math through the excitement of building robots.
The event will be 10:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 11, at Rotolo Middle School, 1501 S. Raddant Road, Batavia. Admission is free and the public is welcome.
Batavia Robotics is a nonprofit organization which has been around the area since 2002. In 2007 to offer the program and incorporate kids from multiple communities, the name of Fox Valley Robotics was added.
Today more than 200 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- grades, and the Coyotes Division is for eighth- to 12th- graders. For information about the organization, seasonal information, and the summer programs, visit www.bataviarobotics.com or www.foxvalleyrobotics.com.