For a robotics team that has been around for less than two years, the Penguin-eers from Pine Belts Robotics Academy and Enrichment Center in Hattiesburg have had a pretty impressive start.
After winning Excellence Awards, Design Awards, a Robot Skills Champion Award and a Teamwork Champion Award, the team advanced in May to the VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas, Texas, where they placed 21st in their division. Although teams were required to finish in the Top 20 of their division in order to make it to the finals, coach Nadine Amaya was very impressed with the team’s showing.
“Number 21 was pretty excited for a first-year team,” said Amaya, who founded Pine Belts Robotics Academy and Enrichment Center. “I was extremely proud of the accomplishments they made at the championship, (competing against) over 500 elementary teams from around the world.
“But more than being proud of their accomplishment there, I’m extremely proud of the effort and perseverance that they demonstrated in order to earn the chance to go to the world championship.”
The Penguin-eers team is made up of three students: Nate Rouse from Benedict Day School, William Grayson from Sacred Heart Elementary School and Kyron Minor from Oak Grove Upper Elementary School. The Penguin-eers was one of approximately 60 to 70 teams in each division, where the students were able utilize a freshly-built robot, which replaced the one the team had used at the state championship.
“They knew that (their old robot) was at its limit, basically,” Amaya said. “They had maxed out the number of points that they would be able to earn with that robot, because it was a very simple design they utilized.
“So they determined they wanted to engineer and design their own robot by looking at some of the examples they saw online, and they knew it was going to be a lot of work in a short amount of time. The week before the world championship, it still wasn’t working the way that they wanted it to, but they didn’t give up and kept working on it. They were able to get that robot functioning, and they were able to create a program that was pretty effective.”
Going into the world championship, the Penguin-eers were ranked second in robotics skills in Mississippi, No. 163 in the United States and No. 323 in the world.
“At the championship, they continued to work on the robot, and work on improving it, and they got better as the tournament progressed,” Amaya said. “That was a huge life skill, so I was very proud of them.”
Now that robotics have unveiled the new game for next year Amaya’s students are already designing a new robot for that endeavor.
“I’m super excited about their continuation with competitive robotics, and hope to see them stay in robotics for many, many years,” Amaya said.
Pine Belt Robotics Academy and Enrichment Center is located inside Anatomies at 120 98th Place, Suite C in Hattiesburg. The academy’s summer camp registration is now open and can be found at www.pinebeltroboticsacademy.com.
For more information, call (601) 466-2465.