MVMMS VEX robotics team headed to World Championships

The iRaiders VEX robotics team from Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School is World Championship bound after qualifying for the competition at the Southern New England Regional Championship. The team’s “C” robot, built by four local seventh graders, pulled off the feat. They will now compete in the VEX World Championship in Louisville, KY April 24-April 27, 2019.

The team has begun fundraising efforts to send the four students and two mentor-chaperones to the event. Anyone interested in supporting the effort can donate directly to their EdCo Fundraiser, or buy dinner at the team’s end-of-season wrap party and fundraiser at Chipotle, Route 1 Saugus, on April 22nd.

Three teams, three bots, three success stories

The MVMMS iRaiders Middle School VEX team this year consisted of three internal teams -- A, B, and C -- each of which met weekly in the Melrose High School robotics lab to build a robot that met the requirements of this year’s challenge. All three robots had an outstanding season and finished in the top half of competitors at the Southern New England Regional Championship, with the A, B, and C teams finishing 15th, 23rd, and 4th, respectively, out of the 48 teams competing.

During the season, the team also won the prestigious “Excellence Award” given for overall excellence in creating a high-quality VEX program.

A step up

For many, the VEX program builds on skills learned in the FIRST Lego League (FLL) robotics competitions they participate in during elementary school.

As a way to explore a new platform, the seventh graders were given the task of building a new robot from scratch, simply as a setup for next year. Each student participated in building, programming, driving and scouting at the competitions. The competitions are set up in a series of matches in which two alliances of two teams formed at random compete against each other in a series of pre-designed tasks.

This was the C team’s first VEX competition and they were impressed by the new challenges VEX presented compared to their FLL experiences.

“It was more intense because you had to actually drive the robot yourself,” team member Adam Nagar said.

Liam Brown added, “With FLL you knew what was going to happen, but with VEX it was more dependent on you.” The two were joined on the C team by Adam Adbow and Ronan Melville.

Now in its eleventh year, the Melrose iRaiders Robotics is a volunteer-run non-profit that works to inspire students in Melrose (grades 4 through 12) in STEM through free after-school robotics programs.

Attending the VEX World Championships will offer the opportunity to deepen the program’s STEM learning in robotics, give participants an opportunity to meet peers from around the globe, and strengthen team problem-solving and mentorship skills.

The team is grateful to all who have supported the team over the course of the year.