Engineering skills on display at Robotics event – The Standard Banner

Jefferson County High School hosted a day-long tournament in its gym last Saturday without any display of jump shots or slam dunks. It was the VEX Robotics Competition where robots had all the special moves.

Two enthusiastic JCHS design teams put their robots skills against those of other regional competitors. One team received two important awards the sportsmanship award and the build award.

At first glance, the audience sees the robots perform assigned tasks and they cheer for their team, explained head judge and retired engineer Rich Miller. Theres a lot more to judging than that. Teams are judged for their documentation of design plans, interview skills, and project management. All the judges and team members turn in their vote for the sportsmanship award.

Miller lives in the Nashville area and travels all over East Tennessee for tournaments because robotics competitions becoming more popular. He decided to attend the JCHS event since it is the first time for the school to host a tournament, and they have only been involved in competitions for less than one year. He wants to encourage the budding engineers from the start.

We only know a few weeks before the competition what the game goals will be, said JCHS sophomore and team member Kelsie Adams. We had to put more rubber bands on our robot to get it to lift things, but it will be fine now.

The VEX Robotics Competitions current game is called Starstruck, and is played on a 12 foot by 12 foot VEX field with a dividing wall in the middle. Two alliances one red and one blue, composed of two teams each compete in matches consisting of a fifteen second autonomous period followed by one minute and forty-five seconds of driver-controlled play.

The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by placing your stars and cubes (like bean bag cushions) in your zones.

This competition was a mixed tournament where middle school and high school teams are included. Miller says that the middle schools are definitely not at a disadvantage and have as good a chance for a win as the high schools. This turned out to be true on Saturday, as Johnson County Middle School received the highest award for excellence.

Some parents from other schools talked about the personal expense for the robots. JCHS covers this expense for their students with grant money.

We get the federal Carl Perkins Career and Technical Education Grant and also receive state funding from organizations such as Tennessee Valley Authority, said Career and Technical Education (CTE) Vice Principal John Cagle. We can spend this money on robots because it is part of our curriculum for engineering.

Alan Reece, the CTE teacher coordinating the event, served as part of the referee team. He teaches digital design, AP computer science, and serves as the student advisor for the Technology Club along with teacher John Williams. He says all the judges, referees, and time keepers are volunteers.

Our teams had fun and it was a great opportunity for networking since we are new at this, said Reece. The students can use their skills to find a variety of jobs as engineers, computer programmers, and robotics designers, to name a few.

Melanie Clark was there to support her son John, and their design team. She said the team started on their robot about two months ago and worked 10-hour days on the Thursday and Friday before the tournament when school was closed due to illness.

Since JCHS was hosting the competition, the teams also had to set up the VEX fields where the robots perform. JCHS owns two fields. Most schools in the state borrow the expensive VEX fields from other schools.

Winners of various categories in the VEX Robotics Competition were:

Excellence award, which includes team (robot) performance, documentation, and interview skills: Johnson County Middle School.

Tournament champions: the best performance of assigned tasks - Cornerstone Academy.

Build and design awards: based on engineering and documentation - Johnson County Middle School.

Judges award: Cornerstone Academy.

Build Award: Jefferson County High School.

Sportsmanship Award: Jefferson County High School.

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Engineering skills on display at Robotics event - The Standard Banner