College of Southern Maryland hosts Vex robotics

The College of Southern Maryland’s competitive robotics team Talons recently hosted its Southern Maryland VEX Robotics Competition.

A total of 30 Charles County middle schools and high schools took part in the competition, which marked the return of the in-person robotic competition since the pandemic.

The competition, which was presented by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation, is the largest middle school and high school robotics program globally, with more than 20,000 teams from 50 countries playing in over 1,700 competitions worldwide.

Each year, the competition presents an engineering challenge in the form of a game and students, with guidance from their teachers and mentors, build innovative robots and compete year-round.

This year’s challenge “Over Under” required teams to work together to score goals against an opposing alliance and elevate their robots at the end of the match.

Members of the Talons volunteered as scorekeepers, referees and judges at the tournament, while CSM faculty members pitched in as judges, hosts, and field construction and cleanup crews.

The CSM Talons Robotics Team is a group of students who are passionate about designing, building, and programming robots to compete for awards. The Talons are widely known for their continued wins at the World Vex Competitions.

For more information about CSM robotics, go to www.csmd.edu/student-services/student-life/robotics/index.html/.

The following is a list of the tournament winners:

Excellence Award (high school) - Southern Maryland Robotics Club (SMRC) Marauders, Southern Maryland Robotics Club

Excellence Award (middle school) - Disco Ducks, Piccowaxen Middle School

Champions - SMRC Marauders, Southern Maryland Robotics Club; Kaizen, Thomas Stone High School

Finalists - SMRC Lucky Duckies, Southern Maryland Robotics Club; Disco Ducks, Piccowaxen Middle School

Design Award - The Boehm of Our Existence, La Plata High School

Robot Skills - SMRC Lucky Duckies, Southern Maryland Robotics Club

Judges Award - Fantastic Falcons, Theodore G. Davis Middle School

Innovate Award - Warriors, La Plata High School

Build Award - The Vexagons, John Hanson Middle School

Create Award - Rizzinators, Piccowaxen Middle School

Sportsmanship Award - Circuit Breakers 1, Westlake High School

Volunteer of the Year Award - The Stine Men