Lowndes High School

Lowndes Qualifies for VEX Robotics World Competition

Lowndes High hosted a VEX Robotics National Qualifier on Saturday January 23rd consisting of teams from South Georgia and North Florida. The VEX Robotics Competition is the largest and fastest growing robotics program in the world with thousands of teams from 20 different countries playing in highly competitive tournaments. When the day was done, Lowndes teams emerged on top of the leader board. Lowndes finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and was also awarded the Excellence Award (Copeland Felts). Of the teams competing, Wesley Newton and Dipan Patel finished first place. Finishing second place was the alliance consisting of Copeland Felts, Paul Yi, Taylor Lamb, and Bobby Wetherington. Finishing in third place were Jack Bounds and Carlos Avila. Having qualified for the VEX World Championships, Copeland Felts, Wesley Newton and Dipan Patel plan to compete at the championships in Dallas, TX.

This year's VEX Robotics game is called “Clean Sweep.” Students, with guidance from their teachers and mentors, aim to build the most innovative robots and work together to obtain the most points possible. Through their participation in the VEX Robotics Competition, students are not only able to build amazing robots and exchange ideas with other students, but they are also able to learn many academic and life skills.
VEX “Clean Sweep” is played on a 12’x12’ square field divided in half by an 11.5” wall. Two alliances – one “red and one “blue” – composed of two teams each, compete in a series of two minute, twenty second rounds. Each round is divided into two stages. The first stage is the Autonomous Period which lasts twenty seconds. During this time, students are expected to program their robots to score as many points as possible without using operator controls. A bonus in score is awarded to the alliance that scored the most total points at the end of the Autonomous Period. The second stage is a two minute driver-controlled play. During this time, each alliance is trying to attain a higher score than the opponent’s alliance by moving as many balls as possible to their opponent’s side. Scoring is also possible by “locking down” small balls into the triangular goals located on the center wall of the opponent’s side. At the end of each round, total points are tallied to determine the winning alliance that moves on to the next round.