BRENTWOOD ACADEMY ROBOTICS WINS ENGINEERING DIVISION AND DESIGN AWARD AT THE 2015 VEX WORLD ROBOTICS COMPETITION
April 20, 2015 (LOUISVILLE, KY)– Representing the state of Tennessee at the 2015 VEX World Robotics Competition in Louisville, KY, Brentwood Academy’s Robotics team (the Iron Eagles) captured the Engineering Division title and the prestigious Design Award following a four-day competition (April 15-18) at the World Championships.
The competition drew 450 teams from 23 countries around the world (see attached list). The BA Iron Eagles persevered through 10 qualification matches to make it to the Engineering Division quarterfinals and ultimately to advance to the finals with two partner alliance teams. The alliance trio, which included a team from Shanghai, China and a team from La Canada, California, went on to capture the Engineering Division title. There are five divisions in the world competition—Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Arts. Each division allows 90 qualifying teams to compete from around the world. http://www.robotevents.com/re-vrc-15-1717.html
Iron Eagles Team “9364,” (made up of two juniors, Noah Franks and Olivia Cook, and one senior, Peter Richards and coached by BA faculty Wendy Stallings and Chris Allen), also earned the highly coveted “Design Award” for the entire 2015 World Robotics Competition. Out of 450 teams in the world, BA’s robot was judged to have the highest quality design. The “Design Award” is presented to a team that demonstrates a solid approach to the design process, project management, time management, and team organization. Teams present their Engineering Notebook to the judges and explain the design process they followed during the current season. Only teams that won a Design/Excellence Award at a Local, Regional, or National event prior to April 1 are eligible to be interviewed. (https://www.robotevents.com/vexawards/)
“Both the division championship and the design award reflect the enormous commitment, time, and talent invested by these students,” said Coach Wendy Stallings. “These achievements go way beyond a trophy. These students are applying STEM principles beyond classrooms and tests.”
Iron Eagles Team “9364B” (Cameron McAlister, Jack Knestrick, Will McClellan, and Ross Kennedy) competed in the Arts Division and qualified as one of just 8 alliance teams (out of 90) to compete in their division quarterfinals. The team excelled in the 10 qualifying matches throughout the tournament that led up to this select group.
Coach Chris Allen says he is amazed by the teamwork of this group. “Their attitudes and perseverance are remarkable. I’m catching a glimpse of these kids futures, and what I see is spectacular.”
The VEX Robotics Competition, presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, is the ultimate STEM activity for middle school and high school students (ages 11-18). Each year, an engineering challenge is presented in the form of a game. Students, with guidance from their teachers and mentors, use the VEX Robotics Design System to build innovative robots designed to score the most points possible in qualification matches, elimination matches and Skills Challenges. This year’s challenge, “Skyrise” (http://www.vexrobotics.com/wiki/Skyrise) was played on a 12’x12’ square field. Two alliances – one “red” and one “blue” – composed of two teams each, compete in matches consisting of a 15-second autonomous period followed by one minute and forty-five seconds of driver-controlled play. The complex scoring system is based not only on skill and coding, but also on strategy.
The VEX Robotics World Championship sponsored by Chevron, EMC Corporation, Microchip, NASA, Northrop Grumman Foundation, Texas Instruments, the U.S. Army and the FUTURE Foundation, brings together top robotics teams to celebrate their accomplishments and compete with and against the best teams from around the world. The 2015 VEX Robotics World Championship included top teams from over 500 VEX Robotics Competition tournaments that took place in cities around the world from June 2014 to March 2015.
The two BA teams qualified to compete at the world competition after winning a series of regional tournaments and the state competition earlier this year. This is only the second year for BA to have a competitive robotics team. Last year, the first-ever robotics group also won state and qualified to compete at Worlds in Anaheim, CA.
At this year’s tournament, the upper school teams were joined by 11 middle school robotics students who assisted the team in research by watching other teams compete and analyzing prospects for team alliances. The middle school teams were also highly competitive earlier this year in the local and regional tournaments, winning most of their matches.
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