On the 18th of February, four of our robotics teams flew to Auckland to represent our school in the VEX Robotics National Championships.

Over the course of two days, teams from around Aotearoa competed against each other for a chance to attend the VEX Robotics World Championship 2023. Held in Dallas, Texas, sponsored by STEM companies like NASA, Google, and the Northrop Grumman Foundation; VEX is one of the largest robotics competitions in the world.

Every year a new game is given to teams around the world, and this year, it was titled Spin Up. Similar to Frisbee Golf, teams had to create robots that shoot small one inch discs into a goal. 

In addition to this, teams were also challenged to create an expansion and roller mechanism for more point scoring. The teams that represented Burnside this year put in countless hours of hard work and dedication to prepare for this competition. Our teams worked tirelessly to design, build, and program their robots throughout the year.

Even though we did not qualify for the World Championship this year, our teams and their members still gained valuable experience. Andrew Wu, who joined Robotics in 2022 from 4067X said: “It’s not just about engineering, it's also about diplomacy. Negotiating with other teams to form the right alliances is very important.” For those who have been in the Club for numerous years, such as Alex Cutforth, the leader of Team 4067X, said “This was the first Nationals in Auckland with all our teams in three years, so we are very thrilled to have three of our teams make it all the way to the round of 16, and two to the quarter finals after such a long gap. We are also very happy with 4067E’s performance, ranking in the top 10 at their first ever Nationals for any of their members.”

When the tournament finished, 4067E got to preliminaries, whilst 4067A and 4067X got to Quarterfinals. There were 80 teams in the competition. 4067X was also awarded the Sportsmanship Award.

The four teams that went to Auckland were: 4067X, 4067A, 4067B, 4067E with 14 students.

Written by: Jerry Wen, BHS Robotics Club Media-person