LOUDONVILLE — The Loudonville High School Robotics Team 598A made their way down to Louisville, Kentucky back in April to compete in the VEX Robotics World Championship, or as some of them like to say, the Olympics of robots.
The students achieved an 8-1-2 record, the best they’ve done in the history of the team’s appearances at the tournament.
The team included: Logan Baumberger, senior; Anthony Cawrse, junior; Anna Maust, junior; Casey Rush, senior; Lauren Rieser, junior; and Arik Sulser, senior. While the other robotics team, Team 598B, did not advance to the world championship, the team members that did compete came from both the 598A Team and the 598B Team. Due to conflicting schedules, Stephanie Kline and Emily Seboe, who are a part of the regular season Team 598A, were not able to attend.
The team paired up with another Ohio team from North Union High School and made it to the quarter final of the engineering division and placed 12th in the division, putting them in the top one percent.
The team went against 550 teams from all over, which, according to their coach and teacher Josh Miller, were some of the best robots in the world. Miller is a science teacher at Loudonville, and teaches Principles of Engineering and the Robotics Competition Lab; two classes offered through the STEM program at Loudonville High School. The classes are a part of the “Project Lead the Way” program which starts in junior high, and aims to teach students the foundation of STEM in order to prepare them for STEM majors and careers.
The students were only able to compete in the VEX Robotics World Championship because of their enrollment in the Robotics Competition Lab. The class is the capstone course of the program, and uses all of the previously learned concepts of the engineering curriculum. The class works throughout the year sketching, designing and building competition robots in the hopes of competing at the state and world championships.
Miller has 15 years of experience in mechanical engineering, and notes how impressed he is by the program.
“It’s great seeing these kids grow, and go to college and get engineering or other degrees,” Miller said. He also mentioned that most of the students that graduate from the program choose a STEM major. “It’s by far the best program of its kind that I’ve seen.”
Miller commends the combination of rigorous academics and hands on competition the robotics program and competitions give students. The workload that goes into building the robots is valuable experience the students will need later on if they choose to pursue a STEM career or major, Miller said.
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