Young Katy robotics team earns world championship – Chron.com

The club TECH of Katy and its VEX IQ robotics team The InVEXibles were named the VEX IQ Challenge Middle School World Champions at the 10th annual VEX Robotics World Championships in Louisville, Kentucky. With coachCoach John Pixton in the back row are Jack Vultaggio, 12; John Patrick Pixton, 12; and Aiden Quinton, 11; front row: Michael Pixton, 10; Ben Vultaggio, 9; and Ethan Quinton, 9. less The club TECH of Katy and its VEX IQ robotics team The InVEXibles were named the VEX IQ Challenge Middle School World Champions at the 10th annual VEX Robotics World Championships in Louisville, Kentucky. With ... more Photo: TECH Of Katy At the Maker Fair, they're trying out their first robot Gears of Fear in a VEX robot skills challenge. From left are Ethan Quinton 9; Jack Vultaggio 12; John Patrick Pixton 12; Ben Vultaggio 9; Aiden Quinton 11; and Michael Pixton 10. less At the Maker Fair, they're trying out their first robot Gears of Fear in a VEX robot skills challenge. From left are Ethan Quinton 9; Jack Vultaggio 12; John Patrick Pixton 12; Ben Vultaggio 9; Aiden Quinton ... more Photo: Catherine Pixton

Experimenting with new robot designs for Worlds competition are, from left, Ben Vultaggio, Michael Pixton, Jack Vultaggio, Ethan Quinton, John Patrick Pixton and Aiden Quinton.

Experimenting with new robot designs for Worlds competition are, from left, Ben Vultaggio, Michael Pixton, Jack Vultaggio, Ethan Quinton, John Patrick Pixton and Aiden Quinton.

Working on improving design and build of the original robot, "Gears of Fear" are, from left, John Patrick Pixton, Ethan Quinton, Aiden Quinton, Jack Vultaggio, Ben Vultaggio and Coach John Pixton.

Working on improving design and build of the original robot, "Gears of Fear" are, from left, John Patrick Pixton, Ethan Quinton, Aiden Quinton, Jack Vultaggio, Ben Vultaggio and Coach John Pixton.

Young Katy robotics team earns world championship

Organized only last fall, the VEX IQ robotics team of the Technology and Engineering Club for Homeschoolers of Katy returned home in April from the 2017 VEX Robotics World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky as VEX IQ Challenge Middle School World Champions.

The success is nice but a surprise, according to John Pixton, coach of the InVEXibles robotics team. The computer/software engineer explained that the club began with the goal to gather everyone together to learn how to build a robot and how to program it.

The 9 to 12-year-olds belonging to the club "were pretty much self-motivated to keep improving," said Pixton, who's worked with Scouts and coached basketball but was making his initial venture into robotics.

"We did competitions not really thinking too much about that (winning) because we were new. We didn't have that mind-set; it did not occur to us. We kept improving and kept moving up."

They were surprised after they started entering matches and kept coming out on top of other teams, he said. Club members are 12-year-olds Jack Vultaggio and John Patrick Pixton; nine-year-olds Ben Vultaggio and Ethan Quinton; Aiden Quinton, 11, and Michael Pixton, 10.

Catherine Pixton, a homeschool mom for about eight years, explained her oldest son wanted to learn about technology this year and that was one of the catalysts for forming a team and building a robot. The robotics club involves the Pixtons and the oldest sons of two other homeschool moms Jean Quinton and Bridget Vultaggio.

"When we started we wanted the kids to do something as a team effort," said Catherine Pixton. "We wanted them to learn about engineering and robotics and programming and still have time for competition."

Having not attended competition before, they had no idea what to expect. About five weeks after the club was formed, the team competed Nov. 13 in Houston.

"They got to see some of the other robots and heard stories from other teams," she said. "They felt really encouraged and excited after that."

Their first robot named Gears of Fears was really big and could do everything, she said, but it was slow. So the team redesigned the robot and while it could no longer do everything, what it did do it did very fast. They won a championship in Galveston in January.

That motivated the boys who got excited to see if they could get better at driving skills and programming, she said. After learning about sensors, they redesigned their robot and renamed him "Heavy Lifter." With both speed and multiple skills, he competed well and earned the team its title.

In addition to competition victories, the team also won recognition for its research about the use of drones in agriculture.

The InVEXibles are taking a break for now.

"Pretty much the last couple of months there was a lot of effort getting the robot ready and testing," said John Pixton.

The team probably will wait until June to get started on a new challenge, though they're excited and want to start right now, added Catherine Pixton. "They're chomping at the bit and talking about ideas for a robot they're going to build."

The VEX Robotics World Championship featured student-led teams from elementary school to college representing Canada, China, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States. The InVEXibles alliance partner was The Gladiators of Ontario Canada.

An April 26 news release from the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation and VEX Robotics announced the winners.

The April 20-25 championship hosted 1,400 teams from more than 30 nations.

"It was real exciting to go to world and see different competitors from different countries and to see all the different people and different robots people came up with," said Catherine Pixton.

Visit http://www.vexworlds.com and http://www.RoboticsEducation.org for more information.

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Young Katy robotics team earns world championship - Chron.com