Last week, the Greenville Middle School VEX and VEX IQ Robotics teams, as well as the Sixth Grade Center VEX IQ Robotics team, competed in the World Championship in Louisville, KY.  After four days of rigorous competition, all teams finished in the top 20. The GMS VEX teams finished the tournament higher than in any previous years, setting a new school record.

The GMS VEX Gigabots, team 2148A, completed the qualification rounds in eleventh place with a record of 8-2. They competed against 85 other robots from the United States, China, Hong Kong, Bahrain, South Korea, Mexico, Singapore and Canada that were entered in their division. They were selected by team 7268A, the Killer Monkeys from Cumming, GA, to form the number four alliance. The alliance was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the competition.  Team members include Josh Allen, Austin Burns, Alex Portillo, Daniel Ugalde and Luis Ugalde.

The GMS VEX IQ Protobots, team 5148A, competed against 199 teams from the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Mexico, United Kingdom, China, Australia, Paraguay, Honk Kong, Finland, Chile and Lebanon. They finished the qualification rounds in 40^th place and made the playoffs. They joined Team 10700C, The Circuit Breakers from Tarzania, CA, in the playoffs to finish in 15th place. Team members of 5148A are Thomas Mattson, Brandon Moore, and Jovani Rodriguez.

“This is the sixth year for the VEX Program at GMS, and the first year for VEX IQ, to compete in the world competition,” said Johnny Tharp, Director of Robotics for grades 1-8. “For these teams to advance as far as they did at the VEX World Championship is a testament to the students hard work and dedication and also to the coaches leadership,” he said. “The Gigabots and Protobots have started making a name for themselves on the national and world stage. I cannot wait to see the robots the students design and build for next year’s game. These students are truly only limited by their imagination,” he said.

All of the GMS and SGC competition robotics teams will now begin designing their new robots to play next year’s VEX game, “Starstruck,” and VEX IQ game, “Crossover.” Their next scheduled activity is the VEX IQ Beginner’s Robotics Camp, which will be held June 27 – 30, and the VEX Competition Robotics Camp, scheduled for July 25-28 and August 1-4.

For additional information about the Greenville Middle School VEX and VEX IQ Robotics Program, email Johnny Tharp, Director of Robotics (Grades 1-8) at tharpjr@greenvilleisd.com or call (903) 408-4432.