VEX ROBOTICS FINALS
Prince Henry’s students have enjoyed enormous success in the VEX Robotics competition this year.
VEX Robotics is an international organisation which aims to encourage young engineers and programmers to design, build and program fully functional robots to compete in the VEX Skyrise competition. In each Skyrise match, four teams compete in two alliances to stack plastic cubes onto various height tubes, positioned around the outside of the game field. Each math is two minutes long and involves a 15 second autonomous period in which the robot must be programmed to score points, and a one minute 45 second driver-controlled section in which the driver must use the robot to score as many points as possible.
Having won through the local rounds of the national competition, our Year 12 team competed in the Midlands Regional Final, finishing as runners-up. This meant that they qualified for the National Finals which were held at the Big Bang science fair at the NEC in Birmingham on 13th-14th March. After some technical and software issues on the first day, the team came back strongly on the second day of competition, winning six of their seven qualification matches. This allowed them to negotiate an alliance with two other teams, and that alliance then fought its way through to the grand final, where they finished as runners-up.
This success earned the team the right to represent the UK in the World Championships which are scheduled to take place in Kentucky from 15th-18th April. Unfortunately, the timescales involved in raising the significant funds required for the competition entry fee, as well as travel and accommodation costs by the deadline date of 23rd March were too tight to be achievable, despite valiant efforts by the team and Mr Parker. The fact that the finals were taking place so close to important AS Level exams and would require several days away from school were also an important consideration. However, this disappointment must not detract from what has been a remarkable achievement by everyone involved.
Congratulations to Alan Styan, Josh Lowe, Josh Righton, Jake Kimberly and Ben Heslop, and thank you to Mr Parker and Miss Park for their hard work and support for this important part of the school’s many STEM activities.
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