Pair of UCS students earn national SkillsUSA championship

Two Utica Community Schools students were named national champions in a robotics and automation problem-solving competition that featured top students from across 24 states.

Max Pagel and Logan Derenge, who graduated in June from the Utica Center for Science and Industry (CSI), took first place in the SkillsUSA competition earlier this summer. This is the first national SkillsUSA championship for CSI, a half-day specialty program in UCS.

“This accomplishment means more opportunities for others to follow in our footsteps as well as proof of the effectiveness of CSI and everything we learned from it,” Derenge said.

The students earned the top spot in a competition that required them to make a robot perform a specific task by creating a “cell” – the component needed for robots to perform a task on the assembly line.

“CSI provided us a lot of robot experience,” Pagel said. “The competition required us to get our work done very fast, and we were prepared to be efficient.”

Scott Spry, CSI mechatronics instructor, said the win was even more remarkable as the equipment used at the competition was new to the team. Once they created the cell, the pair needed to write two separate programs for the robot and one for the Programmable Logic Coordinator – the central computer that controls when and how a robot moves.

"SkillsUSA Nationals is a gathering of some of the best students in the United States,” Spry said. “Max and Logan took what they learned at CSI, expanded that knowledge quickly and did what every CSI student is capable of....Figuring it out!"

CSI is a half-day, nationally recognized high school specialty program in UCS that provides students the opportunity to explore careers in mechatronics, multi-media program or engineering technology. In addition to CSI, Derenge attended Henry Ford II High School and Pagel attended Eisenhower High School.

Both Derenge and Pagel graduated from CSI in June and are attending Kettering University to pursue engineering degrees.

SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. We help each student excel. A nonprofit national education association, SkillsUSA serves middle-school, high-school and college/postsecondary students preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations.

Source: Utica Community Schools

Robert Monroe, Superintendent of Schools

Http://www.uticak12.org