NMS, Burnside Elementary robotics teams put tech to test on world stage | News

Some of Pulaski County’s best and brightest kids went to Dallas, Texas last week to take on the world — and held their own.

Student robotics teams from the Pulaski County School System competed at both the elementary and middle school levels at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas for the 2024 VEX Robotics World Championship.

Using robotics pieces from the VEX IQ company, students build robots from scratch and code them to compete in simple games, such as using the robots to pick up blocks and deposit them in a container. Students have to do all the work themselves, with no direct help from adults. The robots are less like the kind of androids one might see in science fiction but rather low-to-the-ground mechanized tools designed to complete specific tasks.

Burnside Elementary School’s Team 519X won the right to compete on the world stage — teams from all over came, including from countries like China, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, and more — by winning at the state championship level, marking their second straight trip to the biggest stage.

The competition was held May 1-3 for the elementary school students.

The team was comprised of three fourth-graders: Kyleigh Davis, Tom Crockett and Carter Cox.

Burnside Coach Amanda Cox noted that they beat their previous high score and state record in the Robot Skills competition, “so they’re still the top-scoring team in Kentucky.” 

In Robot Skills, Burnside’s team finished 92nd out of more than 420 teams from around the globe. Based on on their performance and engineering notebook, they were selected to be interviewed by judges and were in the running for a judged award, said Cox.

In the Teamwork competition, Burnside was in the top half of their division, but was challenged when a team they were paired with was disqualified for using illegal parts on their robot. 

“So our kids had to run the whole match completely on their own, but they still had a decent score,” said Cox. “They had a lot to overcome, and they learned perseverance. Sometimes things come at you, and you just have to figure out how to solve the problem and move on.”

That’s one of the guiding ideas behind student robotics — problem solving — and Burnside’s students were well-equipped. They enjoyed their time in Dallas, and are hopeful to return next year — Cox said the students have already started planning based on their knowledge of the new game for the robots to participate in.

“It was very exciting,” said Cox, who noted that the students were able to meet and get to know kids like themselves from other countries and cultures. “Overall, it was just a really great experience for them.”

She added, “They had an emcee, and the referee, every time Burnside came up, he would say, “Here are the Burnside kids. They are ready to go.’ He always had a compliment for them, so that was nice.”

Northern Middle School’s Team 650C competed April 27-30 at the junior high school level, also their second straight trip to the World Championships after claiming an open bid for the state of Kentucky, apparently on the strength of their robot design. The team included seventh-graders Leah Chenault and Avery Gundaker and eighth-grader Wyatt Gastineau.

Like their elementary counterparts, the NMS students also enjoyed the experience for what it was, a chance to see new places, meet new people, and make memories to last a lifetime.

“We had a great time,” said NMS coach Reece Turner. “Some of them had never been to Texas at all, so it was neat to just get out, walk around and see some of the sights. We went by JFK’s memorial, went downtown, so overall, just getting a feel for the big city and being around other kids their age and with their interests (was fun). They totally just walked around and interacted with some of the best in the world.” 

Competition was tough for the NMS team, but as Turner noted, they were “up against some of the best in the world.” 

Their record at the event was 4-6, but were tied 4-4 going into the last day, where they had two matches against tough teams, said Turner.

“I feel like if we’d won one more match when we went out on the second day, (we could have) just got the momentum back, but it just kind of turned against us,” said Turner. “We went up against two strong teams at the end. It was tough. But (after) a couple hours, we went back to the hotel after it was over, sat around and talked. We went to the pool and had a big pizza party, and we just talked about all the work they had done the whole season to get to where they were at and the competition level they were up against. It really brought it home to (the students).” 

There were 498 teams taken for middle school competition, and NMS ranked 257th among them. They were divided into six divisions, and NMS was 58th in their division, Engineering, out of 82 teams.

Despite some bad breaks, Turner said that the team’s record doesn’t speak to how good the kids were or the quality of their robot design, and the students came away enthused for the future.

“The ones that are able, they’re already saying, ‘Hey, let’s go back (to the World Championships) again,'” said Turner.