VEX Seacoast Winter Classic Robotics Competition

The Winnacunnet High School Engineering Team is hosting the second annual VEX Seacoast Winter Classic Robotics Competition on Saturday, February 8th. Sixty teams of students, representing sixteen high schools or organizations from NH, VT, MA, ME, and RI, will be competing in the VEX Robotics Toss Up game, and the public is invited to watch this fast-paced and fun competition.

Students have spent months designing, building, programming, competing, and tweaking their unique robots to accomplish the tasks required in the game. Toss Up features pairs of teams, called alliances, which compete in matches on a 12x12 foot playing field. Each Competition Match consists of a fifteen second autonomous period, where the robots have been programmed to perform certain tasks, followed by a one minute and forty-five second driver-controlled period. The object of the game is to score as many points as possible by moving bucky balls and large weighted beach balls to the goal zones. Teams earn points for scoring in different sections of the field, as well as for getting their robot to hang off a bar at the end of play. Each team plays multiple times throughout the day, though with a randomly assigned alliance for each round. At the end of the Competition Matches, the highest scoring teams choose other teams to form an alliance, and they then compete in the Elimination Matches, followed by an Awards Ceremony.

The VEX Robotics Competition, presented by the Robotics Education and Competition (REC) Foundation, seeks to increase student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Each year a different game offers a challenge to students to design and build robots to perform the tasks needed in the game. Students use their STEM skills, their imaginations and teamwork, learn engineering and life skills, and attend many local competitions selected from a long list of events held worldwide.

This event is a qualifying event for the New England Regional Championship, as well as the 2014 VEX Robotics World Championship. All teams advancing to the quarterfinals, and teams that win the Excellence, Design, Tournament Champion, and Tournament Finalist Awards, will be invited to the New England Regionals, and the Excellence Award winner can attend the World Championship, to be held in Anaheim, CA in April.

More information about VEX Robotics can be found at www.robotevents.com

The public is invited to watch these amazing students and their robots at the Winnacunnet High School Gymnasium, 1 Alumni Drive, Hampton, NH.  Raffles and concessions will be available, and admission is free.  The Opening Ceremony begins at 9:00 am and the Awards Ceremony is at 4:00 pm, with exciting competitions and skills challenges throughout the day.  This event is fun whether you stay all day or stop by for a little while.