Seven high school and three middle school robotics teams earned top honors among 37 teams from Hawaii Island, Maui, and Oahu at Hawaiian Electrics’ Hawaii State VEX Robotics Championships, held Jan. 11 at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
The teams qualified to participate in the 2020 VEX World Championships, to be held April 22-25 in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Excellence Award — the highest award presented in the VEX Robotics Championship — was given to Keaau High School’s Cougar Tech Team 5968A in the high school category, and Highlands Intermediate School Team 394A from Oahu, in the middle school category.
Both teams exemplified overall excellence in building a high-quality robotics program.
808 Robotics Team 4109A, a home-schooled team from Oahu, and Pearl City High School Team 4142A were named the tournament champions.
Team 4142A also earned the Design Award, which recognizes a team that demonstrates an organized and professional approach to the design process, project and time management, and team organization. Team 4142A previously qualified for the VEX worlds at the Pan Pacific VEX EDR Championships in November.
The team’s overlapping wins provided Saint Louis High School Team 42700N and Waialua High School Team 359A with invitations to the world competition based on their skills ranking scores. Molokai Middle School Team 1037B and Waianae Intermediate School Team 27301A also received invitations to the world championships with their skills scores.
Waialua High &Intermediate School’s Hawaiian Kids Team 359B and Sacred Hearts Academy Lancer Robotics Team 2437A were named the Tournament Finalists at the State VEX Championships and also qualified for the World Championships.
Through earlier Hawaii VEX Signature Pan Pacific and the Mark Leon VEX events, Pearl City High School Team 4142B, Waiakea Intermediate School Team 38401A, Island Pacific Academy Team 442X of Kapolei, Oahu, and St. Louis High School Team 42700A were also invited to the world championships.
For a full list of award recipients and team results, please visit: www.robotevents. com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition.
“Tower Takeover,” the 2020 VEX robotics competition challenge, required two-team alliances to compete in matches and attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by placing cubes in towers or scoring cubes in goals. The engineering challenge provides valuable life skills such as teamwork, perseverance, communication, collaboration, project management and critical thinking.
Since 2013, Hawaiian Electric has been the presenting sponsor of the VEX Hawaii State Robotics Championships with support from the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium, Hawaii VEX Organizing Committee and hundreds of volunteers.