WSHS has come a long way since its first and only tournament in 2009 when a small team of 2 students finished dead last with 1 small robot made of borrowed parts. Now, WSHS stands ready to make its 4th consecutive appearance at the VEX World Championships with the best robots the students have ever built.
Carlos Castro, PLTW Lead Instructor, leader and mentor to the team stated, “WSHS is proud of all of its robotics students. For the last seven months, they have been meeting for 2 to 3 hours almost every day after school, on weekends, and during school breaks to be able to build the best robots possible.”
This year, the team of 51 students was divided into 8 squads that were tasked to build a robot that could compete in the VEX SkyRise challenge. Since late August, the squads have met to brainstorm and prototype designs and test code.
WSHS has accomplished an amazing feat with all 8 of its squads earning a spot in the state tournament. That made WSHS Robotics eight of the 46 teams competing in Doswell, VA at the Virginia State Fairgrounds on February 20th and 21st, 2015.
In this two day state tournament, hosted by NOVA SySTEMic Solutions, WSHS robots matched wits with the best robots in the commonwealth. In the end, the WSHS Robotics Team made it to the finals and just lost out to last year’s champions, which now qualifies them for 4 spots in the world tournament to be held on April 15-19 in Louisville, Kentucky.
To raise funds for the trip to the World Championship, the team has started a Go Fund Me online fundraising campaign at https://www.gofundme.com/nt9sbc and hopes to raise the $10,000 needed through the generous support of the local community.
