best teams and earned the most prestigious awards,” says
Ensign. “For example, our own Mountaineer Area RoboticS
FIRST team received the 2017 Chairman’s Award, the highest
achievement possible in the most competitive high school
program in the world.”
To meet these goals, the ERC has assumed the management
and coordination of 12 competitive robotics programs, including
FIRST, VEX, SkillsUSA, Zero Robotics, World Robot Olympiad
(WRO) and Cyber Robotics Coding Competition (CRCC).
FIRST
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,
or FIRST, is a nonprofit started by inventor Dean Kamen and
Dr. Woody Flowers that includes four programs that send K-12
students out of state to compete.
FIRST LEGO League Jr. is a non-competitive program for
students ages 6-10. Students design and build a challenge-
related model using a LEGO WeDo robot and Inspire Set to
solve real-world math and science problems as well as develop
teamwork skills. Participants then present their solutions with
a poster and robotic model at free expos offered year-round.
FIRST LEGO League is currently the largest program in
West Virginia with more than 100 teams that compete in 10
qualifying events across the state every November in order to
earn a spot at the West Virginia state championship held in
December at FSU. Based on the LEGO EV3 robot, students
compete on a field with LEGO elements and deliver three
judged presentations, working through research challenges
and using presentation skills. In addition, the NASA ERC
conducts an international FIRST LEGO League tournament
called the Mountain State Invitational every other year at FSU.
This three-day event draws more than 50 teams from around the
world to celebrate the best of West Virginia with numerous
collaborative and engaging activities, including a STEM carnival
hosted by the High Technology Foundation at the Robert H.
Mollohan Research Center in Fairmont.
FIRST Tech Challenge is a middle-to-high school program for
students ages 9-14 that uses both off-the-shelf and engineered
parts. Teams are responsible for designing, building and
programming their robots to compete in an alliance format
against other teams. The state championship for this program
draws highly competitive teams from across the nation using a
sports model, and all West Virginia teams receive a scholarship
to attend the state championship in December.
The FIRST Robotics Competition is for high school students
and combines sport with science and technology. With strict
rules, limited resources and a six-week time limit, teams are
challenged to raise funds, design a team brand, hone team-
work skills and build and program a robot to perform against
a field of competitors.
VEX
VEX IQ, VEX Robotics Competition and VEX University
are all managed by the nonprofit Robotics Education and
Competition Foundation. VEX activates students of all ages
with VEX IQ targeting elementary through middle school
students, VEX Robotics Competition engaging middle through
high school students and VEX University empowering college
students.
VEX IQ is the fastest-growing robotics program in West
Virginia. Students in VEX IQ build a plastic robot that is
remote controlled and autonomous. Qualifying tournaments
in several locations across the state feed the West Virginia
state championship in February at FSU.
VEX Robotic Competition offers students a program that
encourages teamwork, leadership and problem solving. Certain
qualifying events are in January and February, and the West
Virginia State Tournament is at FSU in March.
The West Virginia VEX University is the only university-level
event in the state and is the largest VEX University event in the
nation aside from the world tournament. The competition is
based off of the VEX Robotics Competition but allows teams
more customization and the ability to build two robots that
can play together. Teams travel to Fairmont for this event from
all over the eastern U.S.
The Raiders team from San Francisco, CA, competes at
the World Robot Olympiad U.S. National Championship
tournament at Fairmont State University in September.
Photo by William Wong.
SkillsUSA
SkillsUSA conducts dozens of simultaneous competitions
across all areas of career and technical education each year
at its annual state tournament in May. During the event,
the NASA ERC conducts three robotics competitions, in-
cluding Mobile Robotics, based on the VEX platform and
game; Urban Search and Rescue, where teams remotely con-
trol a robot using on-board cameras to find and disarm simu-
lated bombs; and Human-Robot Interaction, which involves
programming a humanoid robot to perform tasks.
WWW.WVEXECUTIVE.COM
FALL 2018
77