The school’s Robotics Club has been preparing for three months for a VEX Robotics competition that was held at Neuqua Valley High School on Saturday, January 13. The team ended up placing third, qualifying for state, and receiving the VEX EDR Creativity Award. The objective of the competition was to design a robot that will be able to earn the team the most points by moving and stacking cones, with various ways to earn those points.

“We’ve been working for a couple months now. We’re a lot farther than years before so I feel like we’ll do pretty well and maybe qualify for state too,” senior and club president Sohit Thota said before the competition.

Teams were required to go through a check-in where robots are examined to ensure that they follow requirements such as meeting size requirements and using materials that are not prohibited.

“Once you get past all that then you have some time to practice and go through some test fields and so you spend a lot of that time perfecting the programming and making sure everything works properly.” senior and builder on the Senior Team Anchit Rao said.

Teams went through a qualifying round and a final round. During both rounds, teams tested their robot in a timed game to maneuver and stack cones in various ways. Teams designed their robots based on what method they would find to be most effective in earning the most points.

At the end of the competition, teams were ranked and awarded on different criteria that their robot met, such as design or innovation. Moving forward, the team faces an upcoming competition in Evanston this following week and a state-wide competition on February 3 in Carbondale. Thota described the benefits of competing in these competitions.

“It builds teamwork because you’re running around the tournament a lot and it’s very competitive and gives you a competitive drive that you wouldn’t find anywhere else. You learn to work with others because you’re constantly running around and you’re constantly fixing things,” Thota said.