Saturday 3rd December will see Galen Catholic College proudly hosting the VEX Robotics Australian National Championships. This is the first time the event has been held outside of Melbourne, with 30+ teams travelling to Wangaratta for the event.
Teams from Melbourne, Canberra, Goulburn and North East Victoria, will compete for a chance to represent Australia at the 2017 VEX Robotics World Championships to be held in Louisville Kentucky, USA. VEX is the world’s biggest and fastest growing classroom based robotics competition with over 1 million students, 40 countries and 22,000 teams participating.
The event will also have special international guests present:
• Paul Copioli, President of VEX Robotics USA
• Andy Lee, President of Innovation First, Hong Kong
• Chris Hamling – National Manager of Kiwibots and organiser of VEX Robotics Events in New Zealand.
Each participating team consists of 5-8 students, who have spent hours building, coding & programing their VEX Robots – this requires a lot of time, commitment as well as the developing communication, teamwork and problem solving skills – these are the STEM skills (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) required for the future.
Our three local teams are from Galen Catholic College, Borinya Wangaratta Community Partnership and Wodonga Middle Years. These teams have been working hard to catch up to their city counterparts, working hard to get their “bots” ready on time. While other teams have have had months to prepare, our local teams only received their VEX Robots kits four weeks prior to the event. That said, they are working hard and have been putting in the extra hours and are super excited to be competing in the event.
Even though this seems like an impossible task, the way the event is run, there is plenty of opportunity for our local teams to earn points and be in the running. Pairs of teams are randomly drawn to work together against two other randomly chosen teams – so strategy is a big player in earning points.
The event will have special international guests – Paul Copioli, President of VEX Robotics USA – Andy Lee, President of Innovation First, Hong Kong – Chris Hamling – National Manager of Kiwibots and organiser of VEX Robotics Events in New Zealand. Chris will be on hand to help teams, give advice and to talk to teachers about using VEX in the classroom.
The Design and Technology Teachers Association (DATTA Vic), the principle sponsor of VEX Robotics in Australia has been running professional learning and tournaments across Australia. Through the efforts of DATTA Vics robotics coordinator, Travis Burroughs VEX robotics has doubled in size over the last year. With support from sponsors, such as DATTA Vic, VEX Australia, Autodesk Education, and Creature Technologies VEX robotics has become a dominant force in Robotics education.
A special thanks goes out to the local partners who made the Australian Nationals Possible:
• Galen Catholic College – Host School – Maree Timms, Bernadette Albertson, Carolyn Trethowan
• Charles Sturt Uni – Wangaratta – Anne Geddis
• NETracks LLENs – Anne Shaw
THE EVENT DETAILS:
• Saturday Dec 3rd – Galen Catholic College STADIUM
• Doors open at 7:30 am
• Technical inspections & Practice fields open 8:00 am
• Drivers meeting 8:45 am
• Qualification Rounds 9:00 am – 1:00 pm
• 1:00 pm Lunch
• Elimination Rounds approx. 1:30 – 3:00pm
• Awards 3:15 pm
Contacts:
Travis Burroughs – VEX Australia
Email: travis.burroughs@gmail.com
Phone: 466630211
Event Day Phone: 466630211
Maree Timms – Galen Catholic College
Email: maree.timms@galen.vic.edu.au
Phone: 0357216322
Mob: 0419849175
Chris Hamlin – VEX New Zealand
Email: c.hamling@kiwibots.co.nz
Mob: 021 664 176