The Hamilton Heights High School Robotics Team competed at Saturday’s State Competition at Lucas Oil Stadium. The club, still in its infancy, has earned a number of awards on its way to becoming a state contender.
VEX Robotics is one of the largest student robotics associations in the world with nearly 20,000 teams from just about every country in the world. Hamilton Heights Middle School has been involved in VEX Robotics for the past three years. Hamilton Heights High School is in its first year of being part of VEX Robotics.
Currently the high school club consists of 12 students at all grade levels (9-12).
“Some of the students who participated in the middle school robotics program talked about taking it to the next level in high school,” said sophomore Jen Houser, who was among those students who got their first taste of robotics and the thrill of competition from their participation in middle school. “We talked about it over the summer and by late August it was coming together.”
Within eight months the HHHS Robotics Club earned a Judges Award, Design Award and the VEX Robotics Excellence Award. This is the highest award presented in the VEX Robotics Competition. The recipient of this award is a team that exemplifies overall excellence in building a well-rounded VEX robotics program. This team excels in many areas and is a shining example of dedication, devotion, hard work and teamwork. As a strong contender in numerous award categories, this team deserves to be recognized for building a quality robot and a “team” committed to quality in everything that they do.
The icing on the cake was qualifying for the opportunity to compete at the state level.
Josh Ozolins is focused on his task in preparation for robotics competition. (Photo provided)
Houser said the team spent a great deal of time preparing their robot, running the program and testing skills.
“We are really excited about this first state event where we will be competing among world-ranked teams,” she added. “Mostly, we’ve enjoyed the design progress, collaboration and compromise as we set in motion a well-function robot.”
Coach Doug Ozolins, who is also member of the Hamilton Heights School Board, is as excited as the team.
“Candidly, our goals for the first year of this team were simply to learn and try to be competitive,” he said. “The level of sophistication and engineering in the VEX high school program is incredible. At our first competition, we realized that had a huge hill to climb to become competitive. Each competition that the team attended they got more and more competitive. By mid-season we realized that we actually had a chance at qualifying for the state competition! Their time, effort, and design has paid off in a big way with this opportunity to be among the best in the state.”
Indiana is a major hotbed for robotics, and Governor Holcomb has helped with a State Robotics Initiative and grant money to help fuel the new programs. For example, prior to the State Robotics Initiative, Indiana had 72 elementary VEX IQ teams. One year after launching the SRI, the state can boast an impressive 1,537 teams.
“In addition,” added Ozolins, “seven of the Top 50 high school teams from around the world are from Indiana!”
According to Ozolins, the playing field may look very different at the world competition event in Louisville. The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) may keep all Chinese, Korean and other international teams at home.
The competition at Lucas Oil Stadium was expected to be the largest State Championship in the country, gathering over 360 teams from elementary, middle and high schools across the state. The Indiana VEX Robotics State Championship provides an exciting opportunity for all ages to visit the stadium and experience Indiana’s best robotics talent competing in the State Championship and earning their way to the World Championship in Louisville, Ky., set for April 22-25.