This year’s restoration of Oxford’s VEX robotics program after a six to seven year hiatus has led to more available engineering competitions with the opening of a new branch. Looking back on their innovative creations and meaningful relationships, three OA Robotics seniors have prepared for their final contests to represent Oxford Academy in robotics competitions.

VEX Lead Team Member Ian Dinh — Why did you join OA Robotics?

“I was introduced to Robotics when I was in engineering my sophomore year. I had spoken to Dr. Alonzo and he introduced me to SkillsUSA. That was where I got my hands on VEX for the first time. I would be competing under SkillsUSA’s Urban Search and Rescue, where we would build a robot that would be designed to maneuver a course where we had to locate ‘bombs’ that we would have to dispose of. Because of that, I got more involved in robotics and was brought into the VEX program under OA Robotics.”

VEX Lead Team Member Alan Pham — What is the process of making a robot?

“Each year new competitions come out so the first step in building the robot would be analyzing the game and knowing what is needed for it. For example this year, our game was really complicated soccer so we needed to build certain things that would pick up balls, drive around really fast and be able to coordinate properly. Basically we need actual physics knowledge to understand the strength of certain things, how gears would work, and how much force would be required to complete certain tasks such as climbing or scoring.”

FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Software Lead Vincent Vatcharasumphun — What has been your favorite creation?

“I’m really fond of the robot we made last year. It was one of the first years I got to really participate in the software aspect of building the robot. In our competition we have a part where it’s fully autonomous and there is no driver control. During the competition we were rushed to perfect that part of the robot and we had to code in between matches. There was one match where everything worked out perfectly and our robot accomplished a task really well.”

Excited to continue their engineering creations in college, these three seniors hope to leave the OA Robotics program in good hands and wish for the program to continue growing so that other students may have the same robot-creating opportunities that developed their passions throughout high school.