Hundreds of students used teamwork to compete in the Warsaw Robotics VEX State Qualifying Robotics Competition Saturday.
Forty-seven teams, with each team consisting of three to seven students, competed during the eight-hour competition at the Warsaw Area Career Center, according to Abbi Richcreek, competition organizer.
The state competition is March 5 in Indianapolis.
“We hope students learn problem-solving and engineering design skills during this competition,” Richcreek said.
Local teams represented included Warsaw and Wawasee high schools.
Students used the robots they built with VEX parts to compete in the Nothing But Net competition. WACC engineering teachers served as referees.
There were seven qualifying rounds where they were judged on winning points achieved and were ranked.
They used their robots to pick up Nerf® balls and toss the balls into nets.
Jay County Middle School, Portland, and their alliance, two Plymouth High School teams, will advance to state.
Triton Central High School, Fairland, won the excellence award and also will advance to state. The Excellence Award is presented based on interview, engineering notebook, programming and robot skills and where they place in elimination rounds.
Joseph Wlittler, Jay County Middle School eighth-grader, said he was excited to win the tournament.
“Participating in this competition allowed us to gain experience in robotics,” Wlittler said.
Zacc Hutchings, Plymouth High School eighth-grader, also was exited to advance to state.
“This is a victory that we are qualifying to state,” Hutching said.
Nick McAllister, Triton Central High School senior, was excited for his team to win the Excellence Award and advance to state.
“It’s rewarding to see how other robots compare to ours,” McAllister said.
Students from Warsaw and Wawasee said they enjoyed competing in the competition.
Warsaw seniors Patrick Mosher, Ethan Booren, and Kara Blair enjoyed working together.
“It took two months to create our robot. We learned a lot of trial and error and got an in-depth look at the design process and brainstorming,” Mosher said.
Blair also enjoyed making the robot.
“Sometimes you have an idea that is perfect on paper, but when you put it into the real world it falls apart and doesn’t work,” Blair said.
Luke Tyler, Wawasee junior, said it took him and his teammates two months to build their robot.
“I learned about a lot of types of engineering, and if something went wrong how to fix the problem,” Tyler said.
Chase Nave, Wawasee junior, said he learned problem solving skills.
“I like that others can admire our robots and be proud of what we’ve done,” Nave said.
(Story By The Times Union)
