West Hills College to host continuing Robotics competition

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 Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - 11:11am

Starting in October, area students will once again be able to learn about science and math in a fun setting with the return of the Central California VEX League Robotics Competition to West Hills College. The competition series—with the first event held on Oct. 3 at West Hills College Lemoore— promotes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and application, tasking middle and high school students with an engineering challenge centered on robotics.

“Each year the game or challenge changes,” said Scott Authier, event planner. “Each year students must redesign and reprogram their robots. I have heard that this year's game or challenge requires a bit more than guess work if students are going to be competitive.”

A series of five competitions will be held, four at West Hills College Lemoore and one at West Hills College Coalinga, leading up to a final competition in February. Events will be held from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 3, Oct. 24, Dec. 12, and Jan. 23 at West Hills College Lemoore and on Nov. 14 at West Hills College Coalinga.

The final competition, on Feb. 20 at West Hills College Lemoore, will result in one to three teams advancing to a state competition that in turn advances the top teams to a world competition.

This year’s competition is centered on a game called “Nothing But Net”, which is played on a 12 foot by 12 foot square field and pits two alliances of two teams each against one another. 

As of mid-September, 22 teams from nine schools were registered to compete. Registration for teams for the Oct. 3 event is open until the end of September. For more information or to register, visit www.robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/re-vrc-15-3562.html.

Questions can be directed to Scott Authier at (805) 709-1422 or sauthier1@mac.com.

This event is sponsored by Chevron, PG&E, Rec Foundation, Vex Robotics, West Hills Community College District and SMI (The Small Manufacturers’ Institute). 

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