Robotics Competition in Hampton

The Winnacunnet High School Engineering Team is hosting the fourth annual VEX Winter Classic Robotics Competition on Saturday, February 6th, from 9am to 4pm. The public is invited to watch these amazing students and their robots at the Winnacunnet High School Gymnasium. Children, teens, and adults will enjoy seeing these robots perform their tasks and try to score points in this fast-pace and fun competition.

Over sixty student teams, representing high schools or organizations from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine, will be competing in the VEX Robotics Nothing But Net game. Students have spent months designing, building, programming, testing, competing, and tweaking their unique robots to accomplish the tasks required in the game.

Nothing But Net features two pairs of teams, called alliances, which compete in matches on a 12x12 foot playing field. Each Competition Match consists of a fifteen second autonomous period, where the robots have been programmed to perform certain tasks, followed by a one minute and forty-five second driver-controlled period. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing Alliance by scoring balls in the goals, and elevating a robot.

Each team plays multiple times throughout the day, though with a randomly assigned alliance for each round. At the end of the Competition Matches, the highest scoring teams choose other teams to form an alliance, and they then compete in the Elimination Matches, followed by an Awards Ceremony.

The VEX Robotics Competition, presented by the Robotics Education and Competition (REC) Foundation, seeks to increase student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Each year, a different game offers a challenge to students to design and build robots to perform the tasks needed in the game. Students use their STEM skills, imaginations, and teamwork, learn engineering and life skills, and attend many local competitions selected from a long list of events held worldwide.

Teams that win the Excellence, Design, Tournament Champion, and Tournament Finalist Awards will be invited to the NH-VT State VEX Robotics Championship, which will be held in February at the New Hampshire Technical Institute (NHTI) in Concord, NH. Some of the winning teams will also qualify to attend the CREATE U.S. Open Robotics Championship in Iowa.

This event is fun whether you stay all day or stop by for a little while. Admission is free, and raffles and concessions will be available. The Opening Ceremony begins at 9:00 am and the Awards Ceremony is at 4:00, with exciting competitions and skills challenges throughout the day.

More information about VEX Robotics can be found at www.robotevents.com

Questions about this event can be sent to Jim Muthig, Team Advisor, at jmuthig@warriors.winnacunnet.org or call Susan Roch at 603-997-1837.