Battle of the 'Bots: A Robotics Tournament Powers Up a Passion for STEM 

Slideshow The First Vermont Tech Challenge State Championship

15 slides

The First Vermont Tech Challenge State Championship

Click to View 15 slides

On Saturday, February 11, the gym at Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg was the site of a state championship tournament for a 21st-century sport: robotics.

The annual Vermont FIRST Tech Challenge State Championship drew 19 teams from around the state. Each had designed and built a remote-controlled robot that could pick up plastic cones and place them in various spots on a 12-foot-square playing field — including on poles of different heights.

The challenge? To place as many cones as possible in two and a half minutes, earning points along the way for each cone placed — and to score higher than the other teams doing the same tasks at the same time.

In a game like this, speed and strategy matter. So does having a good pit crew that can make hasty adjustments. It's not as athletic as basketball, but it can be just as intense.

Take it from CVU senior Sam Yager, who's competed in four state championship tournaments. "There's nothing quite like being up there, cheering your team on, and watching the points go up and down after the match and wondering, Are we going to advance to the next level? What's going to happen? Win or lose, it's awesome," he said.

The rules for this year's game were revealed in September, in an animated video made by FIRST Robotics.

FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. The nonprofit organizes the sport as a way of interesting K-12 students in science, technology, engineering and math. According to FIRST, more than half a million young people around the globe participated in its programs in the 2021-2022 season.

"FIRST Robotics is the only sports where every student can go pro," said FIRST cofounder Dean Kamen, an entrepreneur and engineer who claims the Segway as one of his many inventions.

click to enlarge

• Cat Cutillo
• A robot contestant

Kamen's quote is displayed prominently on the website for FIRST in Vermont, a nonprofit founded in June 2021 to support youth robotics programming in every corner of the state. There are three levels of competition: FIRST LEGO League for elementary school students, in which they build and program LEGO robots; FIRST Tech Challenge, where middle and high school students build and program more sophisticated robots using hardware components; and FIRST Robotics Competition, where teens build industrial-size 'bots. Every level encourages kids to be creative in solving problems — and in choosing a team name. Current FIRST teams in the state include the Williston Wire Cats, the Rutland Robo Rhinos and Aluminum Avian Antics in Grand Isle.

Robotics competitions aren't bloodthirsty events. In FIRST, there's a big emphasis on working together. Four teams compete at once — two as part of a red alliance, two as part of a blue alliance. Teams might face off against one another in one round and have to work together in an alliance in the next.

"It's a 'coopertition,' — a partnership in competition," explained Joseph Chase, the state coordinator for FIRST in Vermont. "You see teams helping other teams if they're struggling with something. It's a really positive energy."

The best time to form a team is at the end of the school year, Chase said. Sign-ups to compete in the state championship are at the beginning of August. If kids need help finding a team to join or would like to organize a new one, Chase is eager to help.

Lacey Bennett, 12, was among the youngest participants at the FIRST Tech Challenge State Championship in February. A sixth grader from Montpelier, Bennett and her team of six middle schoolers — the Robo Raiders — began the school year as a FIRST LEGO League team but decided to switch to become a Tech Challenge team midway through the fall.

Bennett was happy with how her team performed at the championship. "We made it to the semifinals against high school teams, so I'm very proud of myself and my team," she said.

Her biggest takeaway: "Simple engineering doesn't mean it won't work well ... As long as it will work, you can probably get quite a few scores with it."

click to enlarge

• Cat Cutillo
• Winning CVU RoboHawks team

Jesse Batdorff, 13, from East Montpelier, was excited that Bubbert Innovations, his team of 12, advanced to the semifinals. Although Batdorff fixes computers at home, he said, "I wasn't a very good engineer at the start of the school year. Now, I've learned about engineering, and I'm hoping to improve on that throughout the years."

In the final match, emotions ran high. Gripping their remotes, the drivers from each team steered their robots, while looks of sheer intensity beamed from beneath their goggles. Both red and blue alliances appeared to be trying to will their robots to glory with their laser-sharp focus and synchronized body leans.

In the end, the CVU RoboHawks eked out a win alongside their alliance partners, the CVU junior varsity RoboRedHawks. Both teams will advance to the world championship event in Houston in April.

Yager said the best part of the day is the comradery between opposing teams. After a few seconds of celebrating their win, the CVU RoboHawks went over to high-five their competitors, HiveMind Robotics from Essex and Bubbert Innovations from Montpelier.

"We're always sad when a robot on the other side breaks," Yager said. "You want to win with them, not against them." 

For more information about FIRST in Vermont, visit firstinvt.org or email Joseph Chase at [email protected].