First Upper School Robotics Competition of the Year
Source/Author: Richard Rho, Upper School Computer Science Teacher
December 12, 2019
Last Saturday the Upper School robotics team, the Chargers, participated in their first robotics qualifier competition of the year. The team traveled to Winter Haven High School to participate in a VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) with 26 other high school teams from the Central Florida region. The Chargers ended up placing 8th overall, which was a great start to the year.
This year’s contest was called Tower Takeover and involved teams collecting blocks and placing them in goals located around the 12' x 12' playing field. Their matches consisted of a fifteen second autonomous (pre-programmed) period followed by one minute and forty-five seconds of driver-controlled play.
It was a great experience for the Chargers, and the team was able to take away a lot from the competition. The team got off to a great 3-0 start and lost the last 2 matches. On the bus ride back, the team discussed their ideas for how they could make improvements on their robot.
“It was great to hear the students talk about new designs and negotiate which of their ideas should be their priorities for the next competition,” said the team’s faculty advisor, Richard Rho.
The next Upper School Robotics competition is at River Ridge High School in New Port Richey on January 11, 2020.
