Both VWHS robotics teams qualify for state

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

A total of 28 teams — 26 from Ohio and two from Michigan — competed at Van Wert High School Saturday for a chance to represent the region at the upcoming Ohio Robotics Championships in Columbus.

Six teams made the cut at Saturday’s regional robotics qualifier — the fifth hosted by VWHS — including both Van Wert teams — the veteran team, Van Wert Robotics, and the new “rookie” team, Cougar Robotics. 

The Van Wert Robotics team, Team 5501, was the only team to go undefeated, winning all nine of its matches. Cougar Robotics, Team 14174, and the New Bremen Techno Birds, Team 12166, also qualified as alliance partners of Van Wert Robotics.

Winning the top special award, the Inspire Award, was Team 10144, Trial and Error from Alliance. The second-place Inspire winner was Team 12802, We Will Bot You, from Coldwater, while the third-place Inspire winner was Team 3311, Innovators, from Xenia.

VWHS Robotics team coach Bob Spath, who with fellow coach Zane McElroy developed the local robotics program, noted that, while the tournament presents a number of challenges, the assistance they receive from a number of VWHS robotics team alumni helps makes those challenges far less daunting.

“The biggest thing is how smooth this tournament runs,” said Spath, who was without fellow coach McElroy on Saturday, due to his wife having a baby Friday night. “When you look at the people running this, they’re all students in college or graduated from college.”

The set-up for the competition this year revolved around the 50th anniversary of the first U.S. moon landing in 1969. This year, robots were “moon landers” and had to negotiate their way around an area that included a “crater”, which presents several unique challenges to robots, and had to be able to collect “silver” and “gold” from the contest area to score points.

Spath noted this was the first year VWHS had two teams in the tournament, with the creation of the Cougar Robotics this school year, and thanked VWHS graduate Matt Saunier for his help with the new team. Meanwhile, although the host team automatically qualifies for the state tournament, Spath noted that he prefers to have his teams qualify on their own merits, which they have. Spath noted the host VWHS Robotics team has won the past three tournaments, including this year.

That wasn’t the case for the Cougar Robotics Team, though, which Spath said had to win to make it to the state championships — although teaming up in an alliance with the veteran VWHS robotics team went a long way to helping the Cougar team’s chances to win out.

Spath said keeping up with technology was also a challenge for the local robotics program, as well as for operating the regional qualifying tournament.

“We’ve had all new software the last two years, while this year the tournament includes live scoring,” he said, noting that all of the laptop computers and four tablet computers used to input scores are tied to one main computer that keeps a running total of how each team did.

In the past, scoring was done on paper for later input into the scoring computer. This year the process was automatic.

Nick Kennedy, a former helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army and now president of machine tool company FlexArm in Wapakoneta, spoke to the teams during opening ceremonies, adding that he was amazed at how smart and technology savvy the students are. He said the students are exactly the kind of workers his company needs. He added that it is not always easy for area tech companies to find good employees.

Kennedy also said it was astounding to see how fast technology has changed, noting that he good a reminder of that recently when he toured Apollo Career Center in Lima, where he took engineering courses a few years ago.

“When I was there we did our drawings by hand,” Kennedy said. “Now, they have CG (computerized graphic) machines.”

Spath has said in the past that he feels programs such as VWHS and Vantage’s Project Lead the Way pre-engineering and biomedical programs, as well as the robotics program, helps prepare students for college majors in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) areas.