Framingham Students Take Top Honors At Vex Robotics Competition

FRAMINGHAM, MA- VEX Robotics teams from Walsh Middle School and Cameron Middle School secured Tournament Champions and earned the Judges Award, respectively, at the VEX Robotics Competition that took place in Framingham.

Students competed with and against 23 teams from Billerica, Leominster, Lexington, Marlborough, Milton, and North Andover. The action-packed day required middle and high school students to execute the 2018-2019 VEX Robotics Competition game, Turning Point, which is played by stacking caps on posts, by flipping caps, by stacking balls on caps, by toggling flags by throwing balls, and by parking robots.

As Tournament Champions recipients, the WalshBots Brady Bunch team, or team 9791B, has qualified for the Southern New England Middle School Regional Champions, extending their journey as they seek to qualify and compete in the VEX Robotics World Championship. The team is comprised of 8th graders Brady Levensohn, Ryan McLoughlin, Molly O’Mara, and Paige Spodick. To prepare for the tournament, the group worked together to design, build and program a robot using VEX EDR, that could quickly and efficiently solve specific challenges that come with playing the game.

Each week, the students apply what they’ve learned about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) in the classroom, to build the semi-autonomous machines. An equally important set of skills is learned through the competition -- communication, project management, time management and teamwork.

“I am proud of these students for their persistent problem solving in designing, building and programming their robot," said Walshbots' Advisor Pascal Chesnais. "They brought consistency to the competition field, great sportsmanship, and the results show it. I look forward to watching them iterate their design between now and regional championship where I expect them to shine.”

The Walsh Middle School team meets after school up to four times a week. The students learn about engineering design, electronics, programming, and mechanical systems.

This is the third year Cameron Middle School's CamCats team, or team 5948A has competed. The team’s original participants are 8th graders Nilufar Noorian and Lena Ocain and, new to the team this year, is 6th grader Zeybek Tezduyar. Over the last two years the team has traveled to Walsh Middle School in the afternoon to work with the Walsh teams in Walsh’s Robotics Lab. This year they are working at Cameron in the newly formed Makerspace.

Angie Goldberg, the CamCats’ advisor said, “Our experience working at Walsh has helped this team build the knowledge and confidence needed to work on their own. We are still able to draw on the resources and expertise of Walsh when needed and truly appreciate all the support from their club and also the club at FHS.” She went on to say how proud she is of her team and all the effort they have put forth to make it to this point.

WalshBots won the event overall and will be competing in the upcoming Framingham Turningpoint VEX Robotics Competition qualifier on February 9th at Walsh Middle School.

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