A crowded gym awaits the chaos of blocks, parts and judges clashing with each other for another opportunity to win the state championship.
Each second puts stress on people, the bot and the coaches to do whatever they can to be competition ready. With the people watching on all courts, the pressure is on for everyone involved.
On February 28th, when MN’s own 5069D, an all-girls robotics team, participated in the VEX Robotics state tournament for a chance to reach the Worlds tournament by playing a game of push back.
This tournament, hosted by Omaha North High School, is one of the gateways for teams to make it to the World’s tournament, and to solidify which are the best teams in the state. Around 50 teams from all over the state qualified, with 6 of MN’s teams, including 5069D.
This team has proved itself to be a future frontrunner, with their bot showing some success on both the field and when it comes to its reliability and functionality, basing their model on previous models.
“Something unique about our robot is that it’s based on one of our failed designs. It’s pretty ironic because the fact that it actually works is shocking,” freshman Mahathi Vedagiri said.
The team was created this year to accommodate the growing interest in the robotics program, which now has 7 teams, with only 1 not qualifying for the state tournament.
The team, consisting of both freshman and sophomores, are all first year members in the V5 division, with a couple coming from the middle school division, VEX IQ, but many are full first year players to robotics, with many ways of seeing how the program works.
“I really thought we were gonna make high-tech human robots but when I got here, it was not what I realized and I think it’s so much better,” Vedagiri said.
The varying experience between each member has made them into a team with potential, even if there are arguments about their design or strategy, they manage to compromise and come together to win.
“When we’re designing the robot, what we’ve been trying to do is get everyone together to discuss what we’re gonna do so that we know how we are gonna finalize everything, ” freshman Evelyn Finny said.
With their entrance into the high school level, they have been given more tools and resources to grow in general, allowing them to expand upon ideas they have for competition.
“We have been permitted to use text-based code to make it more organized. Block code is more or less used for the controller now because of this,” freshman Lasya Kalamadugu said.
With their newfound skills and their coordination to work together, they have been successful throughout this year. An example of this is shown in December, when they won the Judges Award at the Omaha North tournament, which is an award that recognizes teams that have performed special accomplishments and/or shown determination.
Overall, their season came to an end after the state tournament, but with their newfound experience, help from others, and an ability to compromise, they have shown themselves to be potential frontrunners at the next state competition, and don’t seem to be stopping on the road to potential.
“Even though we are a diverse group of people with many different perspectives, we can figure out a solution and that has been a very good experience for us this year,” Vedagiri said.