Haverford School robotics team wins St. Joe's Prep VEX Qualifier

The Haverford School robotics team, The Cavalry, competed in the VEX Robotics St. Joe’s Prep Qualifier on Nov. 19. Teams 169A (sophomore Scott Shaw and senior Mohid Khan), 169X (freshmen Alexander Greer, Aditya Sardesai, Daniel Chow, and Toby Ma), and 169D (eighth-graders Owen Gormley, Maxim Kreider, Safa Obuz, and Manny Winikur), won the tournament. Teams 169C (senior Harper Weigle, sophomore Ethan Crowther, and freshman Noah Rubien) and 169E (sophomores Intel Chen, Nick Chimicles, William Clark, and Jared Hoefner) made it to the semifinals – all five teams qualified for the VEX Eastern Pennsylvania High School State Championship in Norristown March 4. In addition, Team 169A received the Excellence Award, which is presented to a team that exemplifies overall excellence in creating a high quality VEX robotics program.

In the VEX competitions, presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, teams of students are tasked with designing and building a robot to play against other teams in a game-based engineering challenge. Classroom STEM concepts are put to the test on the playing field as students learn lifelong skills in teamwork, leadership, communications, and more. Tournaments are held year-round at the regional, state, and national levels; local champions go on to compete against the best in the world at VEX Worlds each April.

This year’s competition game, Starstruck, is played on a 12’x12’ square field. Two alliances – one “red” and one “blue” – composed of two teams each, compete in matches consisting of a 15-second autonomous period followed by 1:45-minute of driver-controlled play. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by scoring your stars and cubes in your zones and by hanging robots on your hanging bar.

For more information about VEX Robotics and upcoming events, visit www.vexrobotics.com and www.robotevents.com.