Florida International University’s Academy for Computer Science Education and Bots for All, a nonprofit organization, hosted the 2nd Annual South Florida VEX Robotics Regional Championship on February 29th, 2020.
High school students presented their engineering skills in the form of a game. With guidance from teachers and mentors, students built innovative robots to compete on a 12’x12’ square field. This year’s theme was Tower Takeover. Divided into teams, students had their robots compete in matches consisting of a 15 second autonomous period, followed by a one-minute and forty-five second driver-controlled period. The goal was to attain a higher score by having the robots place cubes in towers or scoring cubes in goals.
The VEX Robotics Competition is the largest international middle school and high school robotics program with more than 20,000 teams from 50 countries playing in more than 1,700 competitions worldwide. The program helps students gain life skills such as teamwork, perseverance, communication, collaboration, project management and critical thinking. The competition prepares students to become future innovators with 95 percent of participants reporting an increased interest in STEM subject areas and pursuing STEM-related careers. The Academy for Computer Science Education, housed within the FIU College of Engineering and Computing and the School of Computing & Information Sciences, inspires and cultivates the advancement of a community of K-12 teachers and students engaged in computer science.
All participating teams had to qualify for this event from prior competitions throughout the school year–it is a tournament of champions. Most of the award winners above qualified for the World Championship through their performance at this event. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the World Championship was cancelled for this year.
South Florida VEX Robotics Regional Championship 2020 Awards:
Excellence Award 77788Y Cyber Eagles Y CALVARY CHRISTIAN ACADEMY Fort Lauderdale
Tournament Champions 11342A Explorer 1 Christopher Columbus High School Miami
Tournament Champions 7121E Maverick Robotics ARCHBISHOP EDWARD MCCARTHY HIGH SCHOOL Southwest Ranches
Tournament Finalists 11476A LionTech Mater Academy Charter High School HIALEAH GARDENS
Tournament Finalists 7121B Maverick Robotics ARCHBISHOP EDWARD MCCARTHY HIGH SCHOOL Southwest Ranches
Tournament Semifinalists 6293B CROCS – Team 2 PINECREST PREPARATORY ACADEMY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL Miami
Tournament Semifinalists 59B RAMTECH MIAMI CORAL PARK SENIOR HIGH MIAMI
Tournament Semifinalists 7121D Maverick Robotics ARCHBISHOP EDWARD MCCARTHY HIGH SCHOOL Southwest Ranches
Tournament Semifinalists 7121F Maverick Robotics ARCHBISHOP EDWARD MCCARTHY HIGH SCHOOL Southwest Ranches
Robot Skills Champion 77788Y Cyber Eagles Y CALVARY CHRISTIAN ACADEMY Fort Lauderdale
Robot Skills 2nd Place 11476A LionTech Mater Academy Charter High School HIALEAH GARDENS
Amaze Award 11342A Explorer 1 Christopher Columbus High School Miami
Design Award 33172W Doral Robotics Doral Academy Charter High School DORAL
Innovate Award 7121E Maverick Robotics ARCHBISHOP EDWARD MCCARTHY HIGH SCHOOL Southwest Ranches
Think Award 4330X Dark Matter RANSOM EVERGLADES SCHOOL Miami
Build Award 11476A LionTech Mater Academy Charter High School HIALEAH GARDENS
Create Award 7121F Maverick Robotics ARCHBISHOP EDWARD MCCARTHY HIGH SCHOOL Southwest Ranches
Energy Award 7121D Maverick Robotics ARCHBISHOP EDWARD MCCARTHY HIGH SCHOOL Southwest Ranches
Judges Award 4154J U.S.S.R. NSU UNIVERSITY SCHOOL Fort Lauderdale
Sportsmanship Award 59A RAMTECH MIAMI CORAL PARK SENIOR HIGH MIAMI, Florida
We would like to thank Dr. Giri Narasimhan, Director, Ultimate Software Academy for Computer Science Education and Professor, School of Computing and Information Sciences, Dr. Gregory Reis, Instructor, School of Computing and Information Sciences, Rob Gordon, Founder and President, Bots for All, a non-profit organization providing robotics and STEAM competitions and events. More importantly, we would like to thank the more than 50 teams, 200 participants and teachers from the South Florida high schools.
See you all at the next Annual South Florida VEX Robotics Regional Championship!