Hundreds of students from more than 40 high schools across the Greater New York area gathered at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Flushing to participate in one of the largest high school robotics qualifier competitions in the country on Saturday, Jan. 4.
Known as the VEX Robotics Competition and presented by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation, this competition is the largest middle school and high school robotics program globally, with more than 20,000 teams from 50 countries taking part in over 1,700 competitions around the world.
Exciting engineering challenges are presented each year in the form of a game. This year, the students had to build a new robot to control blue rings and place them on mobile goals, moving them to different parts of the arena. Teammates had to strategize to collect the most rings and try to prevent them from being stolen by other competitors.
“We plan on getting to know the game better and see what strategies we can improve on with our robot,” Anthony of the John F. Kennedy Catholic High School team in Westchester said prior to the start of the competition. “That’s our goal for this tournament. Hopefully we can win, and win the next few and apply what we learn here in the next tournaments.”
Participating students receive guidance from their teachers and mentors as they build innovative robots and compete year-round.
Some of those who took part in the competition at Vaughn College were from high schools in Freeport, Jericho, Syosset, Great Neck, Hicksville, Garden City, Levittown, Selden, Babylon and Great Neck on Long Island, Katonah and Somers in Westchester and public and private high schools in New York City, including Hillcrest High School, Bayside High School and Thomas Edison High School in Queens and St. Catharine Academy in the Bronx.
The High school teams competed to score the most points in various matches and competitions in an effort to qualify for the state and national championships later in 2025. Many of their teachers and families were on hand to cheer them on as they put their STEM skills to the test following several months of building and preparing the robots.
Vaughn College’s robotics team (VCAT) won the Vex U Worlds Championship title in 2016. In 2018, VCAT placed in the top eight of the competition, making it to the semifinals.
