Face off: Marion students compete in robotics competition

The Marion County robotics teams were made possible by the creation of West Side Robotics in 2009, a nonprofit organization that helps fund teams in the county and promotes an interest in the field.

“We were finding that a lot of times with kids who were on LEGO Robotics teams, one of the things was, if you wanted to get sponsorship from other organizations or businesses, sometimes they wanted it to be tax-deductible,” West Side Robotics President Cheryl Van Horn said. “The reason we became a nonprofit was to provide a way to help fund and support the robotics teams.”

The Comets were part of a 23-team field at the Robert H. Mollohan Research Center Feb. 4, all vying for a chance to go to the state tournament.

In VEX competitions, the teams are presented with an engineering challenge game, and they must build and develop robots to accomplish their goal. The teams usually compete directly with each other, trying to score as many points in a given game as possible.

During the regional tournament, two alliances, composed of two teams each, competed against each other to rack up points by scoring different items in each other’s zones and hanging robots from hanging bars.

“Mobility is definitely important in this game, especially defensively,” Marion Comets team member and FSHS student Sinead Tobin said. “We talked with other teams a little bit. We were considering what would be the highest scoring elements in the game, and we built our robots around that. Originally, we had three groups that put together three robots and we had a small scrimmage. … We just combined elements from each one.”

The Marion Comets were split in half for the competition, with Team B led by Tobin.

Tobin said that VEX Robotics provides an outlet for middle school and high school students interested in science, technology, engineering and math to put their skills to the test in a fun and competitive way.

“It really isn’t that common, but they’re trying to bring more STEM activities to the youth because there is such a great need for those jobs, and there will be in the future,” Tobin said. “(My siblings and I) are all computer geeks, so it kind of runs in the family.”

Indeed, promoting interest in STEM fields is a primary goal of the robotics competitions, according to NASA Program Manager Todd Ensign.

“West Virginia faces an uncertain economic future if we do not adapt our business sector to focus more on high-technology industries,” Ensign said in a previous interview. “Our students are currently not adequately prepared to engage in the high-tech job sector and are leaving our state for opportunities elsewhere.

“We need to empower our educators to provide the necessary career, STEM and 21st-century skill training to our students in order to counter these trends and entice businesses to our state. The No. 1 concern of employers considering locating or relocating in West Virginia, and in particular this area, is a labor-ready workforce.”

While the Marion Comets didn’t win the regional competition, they’ll have another chance to go to the state competition during another qualifier on Feb. 25 in Charleston.