Robots Repeat Reign

VEX Robotics participants triumph in recent State tournament, three teams qualify for World Championship

For the second time in two years, Stevenson won the VEX Robotics state championship on Feb. 24 at Niles North High School with three teams qualifying for the VEX Robotics World Championship in April.

The junior/senior team PID PID Moose won first in the competition but not without some bumps along the way.

“We had one match where our robot didn’t connect to the software so we couldn’t control it for the whole match,” Abby Starr ’18 said. “It was really painful to watch as it moved around and we were just sitting there.”

PID PID Moose was not the only team that faced challenges. Chimera had their fair share of bumps along the road to success.

“At State we had some major issues with motors burning out and we discovered the reason for this: some of the rubber on the wiring came off so the metal wiring was touching robot and shorting out the robot” said Elliot Segal ‘18. “We definitely have to rewire everything to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

VEX Robotics sponsor Michael Anderson understands these drawbacks. Sponsoring the club since its initiation, he knows that things won’t always go their way during a tournament.

“They had a bit of a rough start to the state competition as the robots were having some issues,” Anderson said. “All things considered, they had a really successful competition.”

This year’s freshman team, Fresher Than Subway, was the first in Stevenson history to qualify for World’s. After careful deliberation from the judges, the team won the Design Award. They were selected based on demonstrating an organized and professional approach to the design process, project and time management, and team organization.

“The judges come and talk to each team at some point throughout the day,” Rushil Vora ’21 said. “We talked about how far we’ve come working on team dynamics and I think the judges really liked that because it’s noticeable when a team starts off poorly but comes back to work together really well.”

Fresher Than Subway is not the only Stevenson team with exceptional teamwork.   All the Stevenson teams have learned to work well together and this has only contributed to their successes.

“This was one of our most successful tournaments and definitely one of our most successful years as team,” Anderson said. “We’re just really proud of our club members this year, they work so hard and we know that they’re the ones who do all the work.”