Loyola VEX U Robotics Team Makes the Playoffs

Loyola’s VEX U Robotics team made tremendous strides in just their second year of existence. The competition this year required the robot to pick up and stack cones and place them in a scoring zone. The design on the robot was definitely more complex than last year. Nevertheless, the team was able to create a robot to successfully complete the tasks after going through a couple of design iterations.

The team travelled to the College of Southern Maryland on February 9, 2018 to compete in a VEX U tournament against other college teams across the northeast. After taking part in six highly competitive matches in the qualifying rounds, the team finished in 8th place, which enabled them to enter the playoff rounds. Unfortunately, this means they were pitted against the top seed in the qualifying round. Although the team competed valiantly, they were beaten in the best 2 out of 3 match with this eventual tournament winning team from Hartfort, CT. 

The VEX U team experienced significant growth, with over twenty student participating in the club. The disciplines of engineering, computer science, and physics wererepresented by the student membership. Dr. David Hoe, one of the faculty moderators of the team, stated, “I was impressed with how well the team worked together to design, build, and debug the robot. Everyone contributed something important to the team’s success at the tournament. The students are to be commended for their sacrifice of time amidst their busy schedules to participate in the robotics club!”

Two freshman students made significant contributions to the VEX U robot and reflected on their experience:

• "Being a part of the VEX Robotics team has made my first year at Loyola even better. I was able to work on something that interests me, I have fun doing, and is challenging. Through my participation in the club I’ve made some amazing friends who I’ve gotten really close to, and gotten great experience of what it is like to work as part of a team."- Paul Grady (Loyola Class of 2021)
• "Our goal for this year was to win at least one match. We not only surpassed this goal but we made it to the first round of playoffs. From the lessons, we learned at the competition and over the course of the year of building, we have set a new goal for our team, which is to compete in the World Championships." - Rachel Jarman (Loyola Class of 2021)

The team is looking forward to competing in the 2018-2018 season and has already began planning. If you are interested in joining the team or want more information, please contact:  Emily Dexter-Thornton (epdexter-thornton@loyola.edu) or William Torres (wrtorres@loyola.edu).