Seminole Ridge SECME: Mayhem in Miami” as Seminole Ridge SECME finishes 2nd in VEX

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Mayhem in Miami” as Seminole Ridge SECME finishes 2nd in VEX

“Mayhem in Miami” as Seminole Ridge SECME finishes second in VEX Robotics Competition

Congratulations to freshman Conner Piegaro who again lead Seminole Ridge SECME to finish in the finals of a VEX Robotics Competition. His latest success was during the “Mayhem in Miami V” VEX Round Up tournament hosted at Ransom Everglades Middle School in Coconut Grove on Saturday, January 15, 2011. An alliance of students from Seminole Ridge and Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart quashed the competition in the quarterfinals and smashed the opposition in the semifinals. The Blue Alliance however ultimately lost the best two of the three matches in the finals to the Red Alliance from Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, the afterschool Miami MAST Academy, and another team from Carrolton (final score 31-14).

Seminole Ridge Community High School and Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart

During the skills challenge, Conner and his robot “BBot” ranked 2nd place in the during the programming skills with a score of 10, and ranked 4th place in the robot skills with a score of 25. Points are scored during programming skills challenge by how well the robot follows the software program written by the team. The robot must to follow commands from its onboard microprocessor to place tubes upon goalposts during of a twenty-second autonomous period, where no driver control is allowed. During the robot skills challenge, the driver does have control for 60 seconds to score as many tubes on as many goalposts via RC of the robot.

(above: video of Team 1614 BBot in autonomous mode for VEX Round Up)

This is the third time the Hawks have made it into the finals of a VEX Robotics Competition, with similar success at the Miami VEX Round Up Qualifier in October and the South Florida Championship in December. Erich Landstrom, Seminole SECME coach, is proud of Connor and this Cinderella story of circuits and steel at bot ball. Landstrom says, Giving SECME students the opportunity to work with the VEX robots promotes education in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and teaches critical life skills such as teamwork, project management and problem solving.”

The 2011 VEX Robotics World Championship is the final event in the 2010-2011 VEX Competition season. Winning teams from local and state VEX Robotics Competitions will have the opportunity to meet in Florida and compete against other top-ranked teams from around the world, playing the game VEX Round Up. The World Championship will be held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at the Walt Disney World® Resort near Orlando, Florida on April 14-16, 2011. Coinciding with National Robotics Week, the three-day tournament unites top middle school, high school and college robotics teams from around the world to celebrate their accomplishments and further inspire students to pursue careers in robotics and other STEM related fields.