Bloom Trail Robotics Team Takes Second Place at Vex Robotics

When Bloom Trail senior Keir Robinson heard the announcement that Bloom Trail Robotics took second place at the Rich East Vex Robotics competition he was surprised.

“We used strategy” said Robinson. “It was all about teamwork, we have a great team. “Everyone worked together to design a robot for the competition.

The competition is a qualifier for State Championship. Bloom Trail will now compete for state at the Illinois VRC Championship to be held in April of 2020.

“I didn’t expect for us to take 2^nd place” said Angel Flores, a sophomore at Bloom Trail who lives in Steger. “My math class helps me with robotics, because we design things.” Flores is currently in Pre Cal.

The only female student on the team, Kayla Barbosa named Bloom Trail’s robot. “I got really involved in robotics this year” explains Barbosa. “I named the robot Reptar after a character in Rugrats. I also pushed Keir with time management and prepared the robot.”

Thirty-six teams from twelve schools participated in the Rich East Vex Robotics competition. Schools such as Niles North high school, Fox Valley high school, Chicago State University, Mundelein and several more.

“It took us about 7 weeks to build Reptar” said Diego Valadez. “I didn’t think we would take second place. I saw other schools who had amazing robots. There were robots that would expand and contract to different sizes. I helped and created the design that would become Reptar. I also helped develop a system with Keir on the robot’s intake system, how it would bring in the cubes. We worked on how the angling arm would be designed to put the cubes in an upright position.”

“We won most mostly because of strategy” Robinson explains. “The placing of the cubes and towers, scoring was based on cubes and our goal.” Robinson who lives in Sauk Village,is looking to attend Eastern Illinois University, his plans are to be a civil engineer.

For the first year ever, Bloom Trail now has it’s own room for the Robotics Club.

“Second place is a big win for us” said Robinson. “I was shooting for the top ten. Starting Monday I will be stressed out because now we have to plan for state.” Robison is now designing another robot for state.

Glynis Keene, principal of Bloom Trail couldn’t be prouder of her students. “This is the first year they qualified for state” explains Keene. “I’m really proud of the students. This is a new group and something new to our building. They had a strong showing for their first year last year, it was the first year they’ve ever competed at all. This year they’re headed to state so we’re really proud and amazed how they rose up and have done so well.”

Students from Bloom Trail who took part are; Keir Robinson, Angel Flores, Diego Valadez, Luis Lopez, David Estes and Kayla Barbosa.

The Bloom Trail Robotics Club will be participating in the Illinois VRC Championship as well as the IIT Robotics in February and the Southworks Robotics Competition in April.