MVMMS iRaiders VEX Robotics Team Makes the Semi-Finals

Posted on: March 20, 2018 - 10:00am

Students with MVMMS iRaiders VEX Robotics joined 40 other teams from MA, RI and CT at the Southern New England Middle School Regional Event last Saturday in Framingham. The iRaiders split into two teams to navigate their two robots, A-Bot and B-Bot, throughout the day. The iRaiders have been meeting weekly since the fall to build, program and drive robots that accomplish a particular task, and in many ways participating in this event felt like the culmination of those efforts. 

Each group participated in 10 regular matches; following this, eight top-scoring teams each selected two teams to join an Alliance for the elimination rounds. WalshBots of Framingham selected iRaiders B-Bot team and the Weston Robotics team from Weston, CT, as alliance partners, and ultimately this alliance made it to the semi-final round of the tournament. The fast rhythm of elimination rounds and the narrow scoring margin (one match ended at 80 to 77 points!) added to the excitement.

The tournament winners were Vexothermic Reaction of Monroe, CT; Locke Monsters Robotics of Billerica, and Burncoat Middle School of Worcester. They and two other teams – Excellence Award Winners Walsh Roboty McRobotface of Framingham and Design Award Winners NAMS Bionic Knights of North Andover – will go on to the world tournament, held in April, in Kentucky.

Reflecting on the season, coach Sylvain Lauzon described an earlier event: “If I had to vote on which meet was the most fun and rewarding this season, I would go with the last meet where we had three robots. There was stiff competition and a lot of excitement, and we had three robots. We had new & rapidly increasing abilities with C-Bot, the qualifying with B-Bot, and the consistency and tenacity with A-Bot.”

The MVMMS Robotics team is open to 7th and 8th graders, and the goal is to foster and deepen enjoyment in engineering. The Melrose robotics programs are self-funded and volunteer-driven. For info, email melrosefirstrobotics@gmail.com. Current sixth and seventh graders: get ready… next year’s challenge will be released in April!