Cranbrook Students Take Design Award at Robotics Competition

Michael Bian, left, and Nick Siems, representing “The Zip Ties” team from Cranbrook Schools, collected the Design Award at the VEX Robotics Competition. (Photo submitted)

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“The Zip Ties” Robotics team from Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills was awarded the Design Award at the VEX Robotics Competition held at NextEnergy in Detroit over the weekend.

More than 30 teams of middle and high school students gathered attended the competition, the largest robotics competition worldwide, with more than 7,300 teams from 26 countries participating 400 events throughout the year.

The competition challenges elementary, middle and high school students to design and build robots. They compete as teams for the championship title in a series of matches and skills challenges.

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“Students are inspired to take their skills to new levels while working in a team environment,”said Anika Smith, director of programs for the VEX Robotics Comeptition.

Each year, the competition culminates at the VEX Robotics World Championship (in Louisville Kentucky April 15-18 this year), which provides exemplary teams the opportunity to challenge their peers from around the world.

Haslett VEX Raptors from MSU College of Engineering, Trutech from Grand Blanc East Middle School, and Gear Mashers from Grand Blanc East Middle School were crowned as Tournament Champions.

NextEnergy has provided in-kind sponsorship to Heroes’ Alliance programs including VEX Robotics and Run DC, another science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) program in which students built a dune buggy then converted it to run on electric power.

“It’s such a pleasure to host this student competition at the NextEnergy Center,” said NextEnergy President & CEO Jean Redfield, “This tournament provides an opportunity for tomorrow’s innovators to discover engineering in an engaging way that makes learning fun.”

The VEX Robotics Competition is sponsored and organized by the Heroes’ Alliance, a coalition of parents and community members in Detroit that have banded together to support the growth, development and well-being of children in their communities. U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) is also one of the sponsors of this student engineering effort to foster the growth of young talent and enable hands-on experience in STEM related fields.