Local Ithaca Middle School Robotics Team Earns Spot in World Championship

The Ithaca Middle School Robotics Team 639D has qualified for the VEX Robotics World Championship. They earned this opportunity after a strong performance at the New York State VEX IQ Robotics Championship. The team of six students from the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) competed in Queensbury, N.Y. on March 9. They won first place in the Robot Skills Challenge and set a state record for the most points scored in this category.

The team also received the Excellence Award. This award is given to one team that excels in robot design and operation. This win, along with their first-place finish, secured their place in the World Championship. Team members Timur Urazgildiiev, Henry Schneider, Theo Bewley, Abel Bewley, Sophie Templier, and Jeffrey Zhao, will travel to Dallas, Texas next month. They will compete against the top 400 middle school robotics teams from over 50 countries.

This is the second time in seven years that an ICSD team has qualified for the World Championship. The VEX IQ program is a robotics competition for middle school students. Teams design, build, and code a robot to solve a problem. The robot then competes in a game, which changes each year.

This year, 60 ICSD students from Boynton, DeWitt, and Lehman Alternative Community School participated on nine teams. They started building their robots in October. All nine teams competed in a regional competition in February, where Team 639D qualified for the state championship.

IthacaSTEM Advocates, an affiliate of the Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI), is helping Team 639D raise funds for the World Championship. The organization is accepting donations to support the team's trip to Dallas.

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