Madison High Robotics Team Rises From Dust

Six Madison High School students are going where no student from their school has gone before – the VEX Robotics World Championship.

It’s the team’s first year building robots, and they have already taken home the first-place prize in the region.

Before school started this year, the students on the team knew very little about robots; now they are No. 1 in the region.

Senior Jacob Willis attributes their success to never being complacent.

“We are never willing to accept our robot for the way it is,? Willis said. ?That gave us a real advantage in these competitions.”

Last Saturday the team competed against 28 teams from the Intermountain West region.

In April they will compete against 320 teams from around the world.

“I’m excited to find out how far we can go with this,” senior Duke Madson said.

?We will have the opportunity to meet these major engineer companies that every high school engineer dreams of working for one day,? Willis said.

The goal is to make the robot place as many objects into a goal post within the two minutes allotted.

As the robot driver, Madson is the man to get it done.

“All those video games paid off, as the controller is just like an Xbox controller,” Madson said.

But it’s not just machinery these kids are learning — they are also learning team work.

“Everyone is kind of specialized, but everyone has the same goal in sight: to improve and win a tournament in the end.”

Team adviser Stephen Meyers said the students have spent hundreds of hours working on the robot every day after school.

“The ultimate goal of the whole thing is to introduce kids to sciences in a technology setting and show them engineering can be fun,? Meyers.

Not only do these students have fun, they want to make it a career.

“This has given me a whole new perspective on what exactly engineering, entails and what field I want to go into,? junior Steven Jarett said.

“After doing this, I’d love to go into mechanical engineering build bigger and better robots,” Madson said.

“If you had told me this was going to happen at the beginning of the school year I wouldn’t have believed you,? Willis said.

The team will compete against other high school students from China to Mexico in Anaheim, Calif., April 19 to 21.