Robotics groups head to state championships

[Longmont Times-Call]

A VEX IQ robot scoring at the Colorado VEX IQ State Championship

By Ken Rayment

Action Works

Sixty-eight Colorado elementary, middle, and high school robotics teams competed Feb. 28, 2015, and March 7, 2015, in Loveland vying for invitations to advance to the World Championship.

Kent Denver team 3946A from Englewood earned the top award, the Excellence award, in the high school VEX Robotics Competition (VRC). Also headed to Worlds are the high school Tournament Champions, an alliance of teams 974X, Cyber Brains from Loveland, 1826 The Fuse from Faith Christian in Arvada, and 979A Inspector Gadget from Grandview High School in Aurora.

Team 1826 The Fuse also swept up the Robot Skills and Programming Skills award, breaking the Programming skills world record. The Design Award, given to teams with the most professional approach to the design process including documentation in an engineering notebook, went to a Johnstown team from Roosevelt High School, 9019A Atomic Wolf Pack. A Berthoud High team, 1069E Critical Mass, earned the Honor by Design award which is presented to the team that is recognized as being Honest, Competitive, Collaborative, Leader and Professional.

For the middle school competition, Kent Denver's middle school team 3946R Sun Devils earned the Excellence award. This team, in alliance with 6047C, The Creators from Westview Middle School in Longmont, won Tournament Champions. Team 6047F, Andromeda from Westview Middle School in Longmont, won Programming Skills Champions with the Sun Devils taking the Robot Skills Champions award. Red Hot Robotics from Flagstaff Academy in Longmont, 6709B, was awarded the Design Award. Another Red Hot Robotics team, 6709A, earned the Honor By Design award

For the elementary and middle school VEX IQ (VIQ) Colorado Championship, the top Excellence Award went to team 974x Chazak from Berthoud. Team 974X was also on the Tournament Champions alliance with team 314A, the Rocky Mountain Pirates, from Boulder. These two teams also scooped up the Robot Skills and Programming Skills Awards respectively. A second Excellence award, just for elementary schools, was earned by 2005C Magneto, from Alpine Elementary in Longmont. All these teams will advance to the World Championship. The Robot Skills winner was 974X Chazak

Two volunteers were recognized for their ongoing support of events. "Volunteers are at the core of our ability to run competitions," said Liz Rayment of Action Works. MaryJo Lusnak from Amgen and Angie Hammel of Berthoud received Volunteer of the Year Awards.

Middle and high school participants competed for the VRC Tournament Champion title by strategically executing the game, Skyrise, driving robots they designed, built and programmed from the ground up using the VEX Robotics Design System. The VIQC game this year is Highrise, and like VRC, VIQC students design, build, program and drive their robots.

These competitions 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, non-traditional environment. The VEX Robotics Design System and VEX IQ Robotics kits were designed to be an affordable, accessible, and scalable platform used to teach Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education (STEM) worldwide.

"These informal learning programs change students' lives by encouraging students to pursue more challenging technology fields our country desperately needs. We know the programs are effective when, like this year, we have alumni of the programs that are in college studying engineering, computer science, and physics, come back and volunteer," noted Rayment. These programs would not be possible without the support from Woodward, Otter Cares and individuals via United Way," added Rayment. "The community service, funds and volunteers that these companies provide will pay off greatly in the future with a better educated and trained workforce."

VRC "Skyrise" is played on a 12'x12' square field. Two alliances - one "red" and one "blue" - composed of two teams each, compete in matches consisting of a fifteen second autonomous period followed by one minute and forty-five 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 and building your Skyrise platform.

VIQC "Highrise" is played on a 8'x4' field with two teams working together to score as many points as they can by building Highrises of cubes and moving cubes into the scoring zone.

The VRC teams headed to Worlds in Louisville, Kentucky April 15-18, 2015 are 974X - Cyber Brains, 1826 - The Fuse, 979A - Inspector Gadget, 3946W & 3926R - Sun Devils,.974X - Chazak, 314A - Rocky Mountain Pirates, and 2005C Magneto. Two teams 974X and 314A are "double" qualified for having won two advancing awards. In the next several days the next two top ranking teams will be determined and extended an invitation to Worlds making a total of ten teams.

Find more information and a complete list of awards at www.action-works.org