Six Galway primary and secondary schools are honing their skills for the national finals of the VEX Robotics competitions later this month.
The Galway-Mayo regional events for the VEX Robotics schools’ competitions were hosted by ATU Galway City in January.
Scoil Muire Gan Smal Claremorris, Creagh National School (NS) Ballinasloe, St Augustine’s NS Clontuskert, and Scoil Bhríge agus Bhreandáin Naofa Corrandula made it through to the finals of the VEX IQ competition after beating the competition over January 16-17.
The secondary school VEX competition saw Presentation College Headford, St Colman’s College Claremorris, Ardscoil Mhuire Ballinasloe, and Calasanctius College Oranmore qualify for the national final.
The VEX Teamwork Challenges comprise of a series of matches where participating school teams compete with their robots working collaboratively to score points.
The regional events were the culmination of months of hard work by these young minds designing, building, trouble-shooting and coding their robots.
The competitions saw over 500 primary school and 100 secondary school pupils, from 27 national schools and 13 secondary schools, competing for a place in the national finals.
The national finals will take place on February 28 at MTU Cork, before the winners there head off to the World Championship in Dallas, Texas this April.
The regional competition also included an award for driving and coding skills won by Scoil Muire Gan Smal Claremorris, St Joseph’s NS Ballinrobe and Presentation College Headford.
There was also a Design Award won by Scoil Bhreandan Naofa Clonfert, Clontuskert NS, and Ardscoil Mhuire Ballinasloe. The judges gave special recognition to Glencastle NS, Breaffy NS and Calasanctius College Oranmore.
Dr Carine Gachon, Head of Department and VEX coordinator for ATU Galway-Mayo, said, “Each year, the challenge is different which requires creativity and problem-solving to overcome the difficulties of the game.”
“This year we saw some amazing designs and were impressed with the pupils’ ability to troubleshoot their robot during the competition.”
The event was hosted by the ATU Galway-May Department of Mechanical & industrial Engineering, sponsored by Trane Technologies – Thermo King for the primary schools and Boston Scientific for the secondary schools.
It was also supported by David Hodge, VEX national coordinator of Munster Technological University (MTU), Ray Bell and Dean Hodge of Offaly County Council and Anthony Bayle from the RECF foundation.
