On Saturday, January 21, 2017, students representing 38 robotic teams from Georgia’s DeKalb County School District (DCSD) participated in the 2016-2017 VEX Robotics Tournament, which was held at Tucker High School.  The competition was open to school systems in the Greater Atlanta area.

The VEX Robotics Competition is the largest and fastest growing middle school and high school robotics program, and it is presented by the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation in partnership with VEX Robotics.

The REC Foundation seeks to engage students in hands-on robotics engineering programs around the world.

VEX Robotics designs are intuitive, no-tools-required  robotic platforms that support science, technology, engineering and math ( STEM) initiatives and education for middle and high school students.  The platforms can be easily customized to meet different academic levels.

According to the competition organizers, “The VEX culture is founded on shared learning.” Being involved in team projects encourages teamwork, leadership and problem solving.  “In addition to learning valuable engineering skills, students gain life skills such as perseverance, communication, collaboration, project management and critical thinking.

During  the 2016-2017 season, over 16,000 teams from 40 countries will play in at least 1,350 competitions worldwide in two types of challenges:  The VEX IQ Challenge, playing Crossover,  and the VEX Robotics Competition and VEX U, playing Starstruck.

The DSCD at Tucker High School hosted the VEX Robotics Competition Starstruck, which is played on a 12’x12’ square foam mat, called “the field.” The field is separated by a fence in the middle.

“Two alliances — one “red” and one “blue” — composed of two teams each, compete in matches consisting of a fifteen second autonomous period followed by one minute and forty-five seconds of driver-controlled play.” The game is played with stars and cubes.  Each alliance has 12 stars, 2 cubes, and 2 robots.

The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by scoring stars and cubes across the fence, into the opposite alliance’s scoring zone.  At the end of the game, the alliances can score more points by hanging their robots on the hanging bar.

The following DCSD robotic teams received coveted awards during the competition:

• Dunwoody High School – Excellence Award
• Stone Mountain High School and Clarkston High School – Tournament Champions
• Tucker High School – Design Award and Judges Award
• Stone Mountain High School – Robot Skills Award

Plaz Tech Educational congratulates all the participants and the winners from the 2016-2017 DuPage County School District VEX Robotics Tournament.