Walsh Robotics Team Competing in World Championships

In October, a Robotics team was started at Walsh Middle School.

And less than a year later, the Walshbots are in California this school vacation week competing in the 2014 VEX Robotics World Championship Middle School Division Presented by The Northrop Grumman Foundation.

Walshbots competing in Anaheim are Kevin Lenzi, Akin Shah, Varun Tekur, and Joey Wolpert. 

The Walshbots are team 9791. You can follow their progress in California, at this link.

Walsh is one of only four middle schools from Massachusetts and one of five from New England to qualify for the competition. But competing in California is not only teams from America, but teams from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Hong Kong, Singapore, Columbia and China. In total, there are 152 teams.

Students use the VEX Robotics Design System to create, build and
program robots to complete tasks that earn points during 
competitions.

Working with VEX Robotics allows the students to explore science, technology, engineering and math areas and develop real skills in mechanical, electrical, and electro-mechanical engineering, as well as 
computer programming.

No surprise, each of the eighth graders from Walsh Middle would like to be an engineer some day.

Each year, there is a new theme (or game) to the competition.

"This year's game is called Toss Up. You have to program and drive the robot around a field, where there are balls placed in certain locations, that have to be knocked down in order to score points," explained Tekur.

"At the beginning of the competition, there is a 15 second period where you program your robot to complete the tasks and then there is a 1 minute and 45 second time period to drive the robot around and earn points," said Tekur.

During the competitions, communication skills, computer programming skills, mechanical design, team building and engineering skills are needed

Students have to learn how to work together and sometimes it is necessary to form alliances with other teams. 

In March, the Walshbot team in California competed in the New England Middle School Regional VEX Toss Up Championship.

During the programming skills challenge, the team scored 21 points. The purpose of the challenge is to score as many point as possible in one minute.

During the qualifying matches the team went undefeated, 7-0, said Shah.  The team finished in second place overall in New England out of 32 teams, which is what qualified them for the World Championships this week.

During the March competition in the playoffs, the Walsh team had to form alliances with other teams. The alliance won the semifinal round but lost to the eventual champions.

Also at the New England competition, the Walsh team won the excellence award, which is the highest award you can win in the competition, said Shah.

The Walshbots is an afterschool club that meets Tuesday and Thursdays. There are five teams, including the one team in California. Students work on building and improving their robots during the after school hours, said advisor

In January, a couple of the teams participated in the Massachusetts State Toss Up Competition at Quinsigamond Community College.