The Clover STEMs FIRST LEGO League team flying the
West Virginia state flag at the inaugural Mountain
State Invitational tournament in 2017 at Fairmont State
University. Photo by Fairmont State University.
Zero Robotics
Zero Robotics is an initiative of Mas-
sachusetts Institute of Technology and
NASA. It begins as an online virtual
challenge, but the final tournament occurs
onboard the International Space Station
(ISS) with astronauts serving as the referees.
The free programming competition uses
Synchronized Position Hold Engage and
Reorient Experimental Satellites robots,
known as SPHERES, inside the ISS. The
middle school competition is conducted
as a five-week summer camp with teams
that compete for the top spot in West
Virginia. The final tournament occurs
each August with the top West Virginia
team competing against more than a dozen
Students from BridgeValley
Community & Technical College
repair their robot at the VEX
University tournament at Fairmont
State University in March.
Photo by Fairmont State University.
RoboHeroes from Los Angeles, CA, show off their
trophies on the main stage at the Mountain State
Invitational tournament at Fairmont State University
in 2017. Photo by Fairmont State University.
other states on a live simulcast conducted
at the High Technology Foundation’s
Robert H. Mollohan Research Center. teams from California to Maine to try
to earn a spot at the world tournament
to be held in Thailand.
World Robot Olympiad Cyber Robotics Coding
Competitions
WRO is an international competition
based on the LEGO WeDo and EV3 plat-
forms for students of all ages and is offered
each summer in West Virginia through
an annual summer camp program. West
Virginia students can join as a team or
sign up individually to participate in a
week-long course to learn how to build,
program and compete in the WRO chal-
lenge, which is held each Friday. This past
September, FSU hosted the U.S. nation-
al championship for WRO, bringing in
The newest and most accessible pro-
gram is the CRCC, which is based on
the CoderZ online virtual environment.
By logging into the free platform, middle
school students learn to program a virtual
LEGO EV3 robot and compete at their
own pace during a 10-day qualifying
event. The top two students from each
registered school then travel to FSU for
the annual state championship in May,
where they meet industry and education-
al leaders and compete for the top award
in West Virginia.
Inspiring Young Innovators
The numerous partners, sponsors, hosts
and agencies that support the West Vir-
ginia Robotics Alliance and its programs
collectively aim to increase access for
Mountain State students to gain valuable
experience working on teams, solving
real-world problems and sharing those
solutions with peers and experts.
“We are continually building new part-
nerships and expanding the alliance to
allow more West Virginia students to
access the world of competitive robot-
ics, all while bringing those students to
higher education campuses, benefiting
both constituencies,” says Ensign. “Most
importantly, we hope to inspire our stu-
dents to complete their high school degree
and pursue a post-secondary degree. We
know our economy is evolving, and these
skills, along with a degree, will fuel our
future workforce. Ultimately, we hope
our students will stay in West Virginia
and join the workforce or even start their
own STEM-based businesses.”
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