Grandville High School to Host West Michigan Regional VEX Robotics Championship

GRANDVILLE, Mich., Jan. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On Saturday, January 21, Grandville High School will host the West Michigan Regional VEX Robotics Championship.  The top 48 teams from local events held across West Michigan will come together for a non-stop, action-packed day of competition where they will battle against each other for the right to advance to the State VEX Robotics Championship. Participants will square off in the game VEX Robotics Competition Starstruck, which is played by scoring stars and cubes in scoring zones and by hanging robots in a designated hanging bar. VEX Robotics Competition Starstruck was developed by VEX Robotics, Inc. and the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation, leaders in educational and competitive robotics.

"The robots that students build and the competitions that they compete in are an inspiration to see," said Chris VanderSlice, Grandville Public Schools' Coordinator of Secondary Curriculum and Measurement. "We are thrilled to host this Regional Championship and are excited to see so many Grandville teams qualified to play on January 21.  The Grandville competitive robotics program is a point of pride for Grandville, and it prepares hundreds of District students for university programs in science, engineering, and technology fields."

This event, the first of its kind in the U.S., will bring together the top West Michigan VEX Robotics teams.  Only teams that have won events earlier this year are eligible to play at this Tournament of Champions.  Teams qualified for this event come from the West Michigan robotics conference.  They come from schools ranging from Traverse City to Benton Harbor, from Hudsonville to Belding. Top teams from this regional event will advance to the State VEX Championship to be held February 19, 2017 at Michigan State University.

The VEX Robotics Competition, presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, is the largest and fastest growing middle school and high school robotics program globally with more than 16,000 teams from 40 countries playing in over 1,350 competitions worldwide. Each year, an exciting engineering challenge is presented in the form of a game. Students, with guidance from their teachers and mentors, build innovative robots and compete year-round in a variety of matches. The competition season culminates each spring, with the top performing teams from local and state VEX Robotics Competitions competing against each other at the VEX Robotics World Championship. At the VEX Robotics World Championship, these exemplary teams will have the opportunity to challenge their top-ranked peers from over 30 countries around the world, including Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States of America. 

More information about VEX Robotics Competitions is available at RoboticsEducation.org or at RobotEvents.com. 

The Grandville High School RoboDawgs are one of the United States' largest and most accomplished high school robotics teams.  Grandville Public Schools has been a leader in educational robotics for more than 18 years.  Beginning with one high school robotics team in 1998, the district's program has now grown to include more than 80 teams based at the District's Robotics & Engineering Center.  More than 700 students, from second through twelfth grades, participate on Grandville robotics teams, designing, building, and programming robotics for competitions around the world.  Grandville has one of largest Lego League programs in the country, and it is home to twelve elementary VEX IQ teams.  These students go on to compete in the District's VEX Robotics program at the middle school level, as well as the FIRST Robotics competition and the Great American River Race at the high school level.  Team members build quadcopters and autonomous vehicles for high school competitions and university competitions across North America.  This year, the RoboDawgs' high-altitude balloon program are continuing their efforts to achieve long distance sustained high altitude balloon flight through neutral buoyancy.

For more information, contact RoboDawg Head Coaches:  Mike Evele [email protected] or Doug Hepfer – [email protected] / 616-540-3239

SOURCE Grandville High School