The Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City on March 12 was the home of the Southern New York State Championship that signals the close of the Southern New York State season for the VEX Robotics Competition.
Students have worked all season designing, building, programming, practicing, and fine tuning their robots through countless hours of work and competitions to be able to attend this event. At this event, there are only 12 seats for 56 high school students to compete at the World Championship event in Dallas, Texas each year. The event is the most important for all teams as it determines whether their season will continue or come to a close. This was the first in-person state championship event since the pandemic began in 2020.
The competition ran from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and it was hosted by Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology.
(Photo by Jennifer Corr)
Schools competing included teams from Farmingdale, Great Neck, Freeport, Rockville Center Locust Valley, Garden City, Selden, Bellmore, Katonah, Woodmere, Garden City, Bronx, New York and Merrick, among others.
The Garden City High School Robotics Team and the Adelphi University STEP Program, a science advancement program, were victorious for their hometown. The Garden City High School Robotics Team won the “Amaze Award,” qualifying them for the World Championship event in Dallas. The Adelphi University STEP Program won the “Inspire Award.”
It may have been a gloomy day outside with wind, rain and snow, but inside the Cradle of Aviation was a crowd of excited and inspired students and their family and friends. The day started at 7:30 a.m., with the opening ceremony at 9 a.m. The qualification rounds began at 9:30 a.m., and with an hour long break for lunch from 12 to 1 p.m., the qualification rounds continued through 3:30 p.m. The alliance selections and elimination matches continued from 4 to 4:30 p.m., and students won their awards at 5:30 p.m.
Ranking in first place was the KG Computech team from Flushing, NY.
The rules of the game are as follows:
Matches are played on a field set up as illustrated in the figures throughout. Two alliances —one “red” and one “blue”—composed of two teams each, compete in each match. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by scoring rings, moving mobile goals to “Alliance Home Zones,” and by climbing platforms at the end of a match.
An “Autonomous Win Point” is awarded to any alliance that has cleared their AWP Line and scored at least one ring on or in each “Alliance Mobile Goal” at the end of the “Autonomous Period.” An “Autonomous Bonus” is awarded to the alliance that has the most points at the end of the “Autonomous Period.”
