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Neighbors | Submitted .Students competed using robots they designed for the Vex qualifying robotics tournament Feb. 1 hosted by Mahoning County Career and Technical Center.
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Neighbors | Submitted .MCCTC hosted the Vex Robotics tournament Feb. 1 where local robotics teams competed to qualify for state and national tournaments.
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Neighbors | Submitted .Austintown High School students stood around the Vex Robotics Competition arena Feb. 2 at Mahoning County Career and Technical Center.
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Neighbors | Submitted .Robotics teams composed of local high school students competed with each other at MCCTC Feb. 1 for the qualifying Vex Robotics Tournament.
By JESSICA HARKER
Austintown’s Vex Robotics teams competed for state qualifications on Feb. 2 at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center.
High School STEM teacher’s Celia Sroka and Robert Wyant organized the group, working mostly with students in the STEM classes at Austintown Fitch High School.
Sroka said this is because the Vex Competitions use the same tools the teachers utilize in their Project Lead the Way classes, which means the students are already familiar with the programing.
“Vex does this game every year, and every year it changes,” Sroka said. “This year it’s called turning point.”
This is the second year Austintown has competed in the Vex competitions, with two teams competing simultaneously.
The program is separate from the schools FIRST robotics team, run by Andy Yantes, though Sroka said the teams are looking to work together.
“This year we just started talking and we are going to collaborate,” Sroka said. “We are trying to get it out there. I think it’s going work.”
The teams build separate robots, designed to compete in different styles of games.
The Vex Competition this year, called turning point, is focused on turning caps and flags to match your teams color.
Sroka said that each round, two teams compete, and are assigned to the blue or red alliance.
The alliance determines what color you have to attempt to make all of the obstacles on the field face, including ending on your teams color podium, or on the yellow which is centered on the field and worth more points.
“I am there as a guide; we’re just coaches,” Sroka said. “We aren’t allowed to touch the robot and we aren’t allowed to program.”
She explained that students on each team, design, build and program the robots for competition.
Sroka and Wyant are available throughout the process to help students and answer questions though.
“We just sit there and say, it would be my suggestion to do this or do that,” Sroka said. “My big thing now is I have learned to ask why are you doing this, and if they can’t explain it to me I say do you think that is going to help you.”
The teams are made up of students ranging from freshman to seniors, who are not required to be in the STEM program.
“Some of them have done some really cool things and some of them are very simple robots, but it’s learning,” Sroka said.
The teams competed at MCCTC for both league play and a qualifying tournament.
Fifty-three teams of students, from 18 schools also competed at the school to attempt to qualify for the state tournament on Feb. 8.
One of Austintown’s teams, Cosmic Guardians, qualified for the state tournament.
Students Brandon Malahtaris, Hannah Harris and John Scott compose the team, and will travel with the teams advisor to the tournament in Marion at the end of the month.
“I think the kids are doing a good job with this they are having fun,” Sroka said. “I tell my kids you give me working robots I buy you pizza, so they are getting pizza tonight.”