The Stillwater High School Robotics team took three robotics teams to Worlds last Spring, with one team placing 8th in their division.
Members of Stillwaters robotics team Nexus, Revanant and Bamboozled traveled to Dallas to compete in Vex Worlds. One member from Bamboozled described the experience as fun and entertaining.
“We ended up placing 8th in our division, and we also took the Amaze award home,” said Joshua Li, who is the Notebooker for his team.
Over the course of eight months, members of the robotics team worked tirelessly to prepare for Worlds. In order to get into Vex Worlds, they must compete in at least one tournament and win either a Design, Excellence or a Tournament Champs award in hopes of making it to State, where they repeat the process again in hopes of making it to Worlds.
“Preparing for Worlds is a constant process of trial and error,” said Aiden Kim, the main coder for Nexus. “As the bot continues to mature, we do as well as robotics students.”
Vex Worlds is a great way to interact with teams from around the world and gain insight on future projects, said Thomas Joyce, the main builder for Nexus.
“We got to meet with an Australian team that really liked our robots design,” Joyce said. “We got to see a lot of great people from the [robotics] community, and we got to meet a lot of universities that were showcasing there.”
The Stillwater Robotics team had a successful year last year, taking home the Tournament champ, finalists and excellence award at State. Revenant’s Notebooker Barbara Laxton said robotics is a great way to meet new people, learn about engineering in a space of like minded people and enhance a variety of different skills.
“[Robotics] has given me more leadership skills and made me better at engineering,” Laxton said. “You get to meet all sorts of people who think like you and compete in interesting competitions.”
