The Herricks Highlandbots qualified for the U.S. CREATE Open National VEX Robotics Competition and Southern New York State VEX High School Championships after competing in the regional qualifier tournament, held at Lycee Francais de New York on Jan. 20. The students earned the Excellence Award.
Under the guidance of club president Caitlin Chou, and teacher advisers, the Herricks Robotics Club actively sought success tried to be the best robotics teams the high school has seen in a decade. At all three events, the team moved onto the semi-finals, bringing awards home in two out of the three events.
VEX annually presents a different objective for students to focus on. This year’s challenge was for the robots to stack cones and make goals. The work involves programming, coding, design, engineering and other STEAM related skills. Both Herricks teams put in hours after school, on weekends and during breaks and summer months to execute and fine-tune their strategies. Students held various roles within their respective groups, and all collaborated in producing successful projects.
At the first competition, the teams received the Judges Award as special recognition. Confident that they were capable of even more, they worked harder for the next qualifier. Teachers from other schools, parents, judges and the referees expressed admiration for the Herricks students’ dedication and spirit. The judges deemed Team 11040B’s engineering notebook “outstanding” and, describing it as “the best they have ever seen,” photographed it to use it as a model. The robot was top ranked in qualification matches.
The notebook, spirit and robot as a whole cumulated into recognition that qualifies the team for championship rounds. They are now preparing to head to Northern Westchester in March, where they will compete at the state level where they will face some of the top teams from our region.
