Programmed for excellence

This year, technology is taking over the world. Members of the robotics team have spent the last few months making sure of it. On Nov. 7, they competed in Rockwall and had one of their six teams reach semi-finals.

The competition itself consists of one school’s entered robot, programmed to score by shooting small balls into various goals with different numerical score values. It strategically runs for a set amount of time against another school’s robot. Each CSHS team, led by robotics teacher and team sponsor Linda Woessner, was entered in the preliminary level competition beginning early that morning.

“All six of our teams performed well in the last competition. For almost all of the students on all six of our teams, it was their first competition, ever. The goal was to be able to successfully compete, and they all exceed that,” Woessner said.

Following prelims, teams A, B, C, D, and F proceeded to the finals level of competition. Teams A, B, C, and D were eliminated during quarterfinals, and Team F continued on to semifinals.

“Team F performed exceptionally well,” said Woessner. “They were brave enough to take a different strategy from the other teams, and it worked well for them. Robotics is about collaboration, and they designed a robot to play a critical supporting role rather than take the lead.”

CSHS also received the Judges Choice award for their performance and enthusiasm throughout the entire day. All six teams are continuing to improve throughout the year and are hoping to advance to the Vex National and World competitions next semester.

“I’m really looking forward to moving onto higher levels of competing this year,” junior and Software Lead of Team C Austin Florence said. “The new hardware allows for us to shoot enough high goals to earn over two hundred points, which gives us a good chance to advance.”

Last year, the Carroll team broke a world record at the Vex Skyrise competition in January and competed in the World Competition in April.

“We have a lot of very talented kids and great robots. [We] hope to have all of our teams qualify for Worlds,” Woessner said.

Southlake will also be hosting a Vex Regional competition this upcoming year on Jan. 23. Prior to then, their next competition will be Saturday, Dec. 12 in McKinney. The team hopes to have a great deal of support from the student body.

“We are going to need lots of volunteers to run the tournament and lots of people to come out to watch and cheer!” Woessner said.