Colorado and Wyoming School Teams Compete in Colorado VEX Robotics Championship

March 4, 2009 - PRLog -- Berthoud, CO – Last Saturday the robots kept the spectators on the edge of their seats at Berthoud High School until the last elimination round. Teams from Colorado and Wyoming spent a day doing robot inspections, judge interviews, and qualification rounds, finally culminating in elimination rounds to determine the best robots.

The elimination rounds had robots compete in “alliances”, pairings determined by how well they did in the qualification rounds. The teams were competing for the top award, the Excellence Award, that this year included a coveted ID Tech Camp Scholarship. ID Tech Camp has summer programs that teach kids the hottest technologies.  As an added bonus, the teams and spectators were able to see Venus and the Moon up close through the only telescope of its size on a high school campus, thanks to the Little Thompson Observatory located at Berthoud High.

VEX Robotics Competition is played out by four robots at a time on a 12’ by 12’ field. The robots are designed, built, and programmed by students to complete tasks that change every year. This year the robots had to move cubes into goals of various heights while avoiding collisions.  Additional points were given for rotating a big center cube to the alliance color and finally battling to park a robot on the center platform at the end of the driving period.

Each robot  runs a 20 second “autonomous” mode – running strictly from programming, followed by a 2 minute driving mode where teams operate the robot with a remote control they have programmed.

Unlike other sporting events, teams help other teams having programming or mechanical problems.  It is a sport that promotes cooperation so that all teams do their best. When a student was asked why his team helped another team fix their program problem, a team that went on to beat their team, the student simply said it was because the other team really had a much better robot.

As the judges made their final decisions the crowd reached for t-shirts donated by Solid Works, a leading 3D CAD (computer aided design) software, being tossed into the bleachers. In addition to the awards won by the students, two companies were recognized with Partner of the Year awards for financial, equipment, and volunteer support of robotics for students in Colorado.

The results were:
Excellence Award - 979b Grandview High School, Aurora, CO – also recipient of the ID Tech Camp Scholarship
Tournament Champion - 1826 and 1826b Faith Christian Academy, Arvada, CO
Robot Skills Challenge - 1826b Faith Christian Academy, Arvada, CO
Programming Skills Challenge - 974 Bill Reed Middle School, Loveland, CO
Judge’s Award - 1069b Berthoud High School, Berthoud, CO

Partner of the Year Award – Woodward Governor
Partner of the Year Award – GE Energy

The following teams will be invited to the VEX Robotics Competition World Championship in Dallas April 30-May 2, 2009.
979b Grandview High School, Aurora, CO
1826 and 1826b Faith Christian Academy, Arvada, CO
974 Bill Reed Middle School, Loveland, CO
1166b Lutheran High School, Parker, CO Tournament finalist along with 974

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Action Works’ mission is to engage youth and build interest in the STEM professions by organizing technology programs in Northern Colorado schools. Founded in 1994, Action Works is an educational 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. action-works.org.