Five robotics enthusiasts from Sky View High will be taking a trip to the VEX Robotics World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, next month after winning the state championship in Farmington last weekend.

Two teams from Sky View, along with a team from Davis County, will compete against 1,400 robotics teams from around the world including Australia, China and Canada over April 19 to 25. Utah is able to send three teams to the world competition, while bigger states like California and Texas send more students.

It is the world stage of Vex Robotics, Sky Robotics and Engineering Teacher Jared Storrs said.

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The Vex Robotics challenge is different each year. This years gameinvolved two teams robots flinging, pushing and shoving foam jacks and bean bags over a fence. The robots first use an autonomous mode, where robots move based on code, followed by a longer period where students control their robots using a remote similar to a video game controller.

Of the the 24 teams at the state competition, two of the three winners came from Sky View. The competition started with qualifying matches before teams chose alliances.

Kaledon Grandy, a ninth-grade student from North Cache Middle School who joined the Sky View robotics club, said his team was ranked 20 out of 24 in the qualifiers, but a strong team from Davis County picked both of the Sky View teams for their alliance. The three teams ended up winning the state championship.

They just played the game right and did well enough throughout the year that everybody kind of knew who they wanted for that final, Storrs said.

Grandy said his classmates are excited for him.

They think about sport teams, and if you go to states thats a big thing, and nationals is amazing, but worlds is really awesome, Grandy said.

This is Grandys first year in robotics, but he took a basic robotics camp over the summer and enjoyed the engineering aspect. He said he likes figuring out how to make something work and finding ways to create different types of motion.

You have to be able to look at a pile of scraps and turn it into something, Grandy said.

He said he has no idea what to expect at worlds, but he remains excited about the competition next month.

Im looking forward to seeing all the diverse teams from different parts of the world and seeing how we can all fit together in this simple little competition, Grandy said.

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Sky View robotics wins state championship - The Herald Journal