Kapolei-based Island Pacific Academy’s Navigator Robotics Team 4442X captured the Think Award and Robot Skills Champion Award at Hawaiian Electrics’ Hawaiʻi State VEX Robotics Championships held Jan. 11 at UH Hilo. The Think award recognizes a team with an impressive and effective autonomous programming, while the Robot Skills Champion is awarded to the team with the highest combined top Programming and top Driving Skills Challenge score. Team 4442X pre-qualifed for a slot at the VEX World Championships in Louisville, Kentucky this April. They will join 13 Hawaiʻi VEX VRC teams that also qualified for the VEX Worlds, which is the culminating event that draws hundreds of the best teams from the around the globe to crown the World Champions. Front row, left to right: David Pavlicek and Nathan Okimoto. In back row are event volunteers, including Sharon Suzuki (second from right), president of Hawaiian Electric’s Maui County and Hawaiʻi Island utilities. Photo courtesy of Hawaiian Electric.
Hawaiʻi teams qualify for 2020 VEX Worlds
HILO, Jan. 14, 2020 – Seven high school and three middle school robotics teams earned top honors among 37 teams from Hawaiʻi Island, Maui, and Oʻahu at Hawaiian Electric’s Hawaiʻi State VEX Robotics Championships held Jan. 11 at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. The teams qualified to participate in the 2020 VEX World Championships to be held April 22-25 in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Excellence Award, the highest award presented in the VEX Robotics Championship, was given to Keaʻau High School, Cougar Tech Team 5968A in the high school category, and Highlands Intermediate School Team 394A from Pearl City, Oʻahu, in the middle school category. Both teams exemplified overall excellence in building a high-quality robotics program.
808 Robotics Team 4109A, a home-schooled team from Pearl City, Oʻahu, and Pearl City High School Team 4142A were named the Tournament Champions. Team 4142A also earned the Design Award, which recognizes a team that demonstrates an organized and professional approach to the design process, project and time management, and team organization.
Team 4142A previously qualified for the VEX Worlds through earning the Excellence Award and Tournament Champions title at the Pan Pacific VEX EDR Championships in November. The team’s overlapping wins provided St. Louis High School Team 42700N and Waialua High School Team 359A with invitations to the world competition based on their skills ranking scores. Molokaʻi Middle School Team 1037B and Waiʻanae Intermediate School Team 27301A also received invitations to the World Championships with their skills scores. This is the first time a team from Waiʻanae has been invited to the VEX Worlds in only the second year the team has competed in VEX competition.
Waialua High & Intermediate School’s Hawaiian Kids Team 359B and Sacred Hearts Academy Lancer Robotics Team 2437A were named the Tournament Finalists at the State VEX Championships and also qualified for the World Championships.
Through earlier Hawaiʻi VEX Signature Pan Pacific and the Mark Leon VEX events, Pearl City High School Team 4142B, Waiākea Intermediate School Team 38401A, Island Pacific Academy Team 4442X of Kapolei, Oʻahu, and St. Louis High School Team 42700A were also invited to the VEX World Championships.
For a full list of award recipients and team results, please visit: https://www.robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/RE-VRC-20-9130.html.
“Tower Takeover,” the 2020 VEX robotics competition challenge, required two-team alliances to compete in matches and attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by placing cubes in towers or scoring cubes in goals. The engineering challenge provides valuable life skills such as teamwork, perseverence, communication, collaboration, project management, and critical thinking. Since 2013, Hawaiian Electric has been the presenting sponsor of the VEX Hawaiʻi State Robotics Championships with support from the Hawaiʻi Space Grant Consortium, Hawaiʻi VEX Organizing Committee, and hundreds of volunteers.
