Utah State University - » Robots invade Mountain Crest as student teams compete

Robots invade Mountain Crest as student teams compete

February 20th, 2011 Posted in Arts and Life

By Jesse Dredge
Utah Public Radio

HYRUM—Students gathered to compete in a Vex Robotics competition last week at Mountain Crest High School.

Nineteen teams from around the country, including Utah, Idaho, and Nebraska, took part, with students remotely controlling their robots from the side of a rink filled with obstacles. The object was to place plastic rings on posts.

Each robot, designed and constructed by the students, is part of the Texas-based Vex Robotics learning program. The company provides the parts, the programming capability, and sponsors the competition, but the students must provide the creativity and ingenuity to win.

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Students who win have a chance to advance to the World Vex Robotics Competition at Disney World in April. Most participating students, however, have their sights aimed higher than just Disney World.

“I want to build spaceships,” said student Kyla Johnson, who wants to become an aerospace engineer.

“We’re the nerds,” another student said, “it’s what we do.”

The goal of the program is to attract more students like Johnson into engineering and technical careers.

“It’s a competition to get students interested in some of the technology and engineering fields,” said Wade Goodrich, a Utah State University professor and head judge for the robot competition. “We’re trying, as a nation, to encourage students to approach these fields.”

There is a large need for more engineers to solve national and global issues, said Goodrich. The Vex Robotics competition is where it can start.

The World Vex Robotics Competition will take place April 14-16 at Disney World.  For more information visit the website.

Tags: Mountain Crest, robots, Vex Robotics