Taking on the Worlds: Two Cape Cod school teams vie in robot competition

MASHPEE ― As Team Aviators, comprised of Mashpee Middle-High School students Jamie Hughes, 17, and Katrina Mayen, 17, competed Saturday at the Cape Cod Mini Makerfaire VEX Robotics Tournament, their robot clamored against four other bots — each hoping to attain the highest score.

The bots, carefully held together with nuts, bolts, gears, sprockets, and pieces of sheet metal, zipped around the ring ― almost effortlessly remote controlled by Hughes. The bot that kicked or punted the most small yellow discs into high and low goal areas would emerge the winner.

As seniors, the Aviators will compete in their last local tournament before they go to the VEX Robotics World Championship on April 25 in Dallas, Texas. The event is the highest level of VEX high school robotics in the world and will draw 800 teams from countries like China, South Korea, Mexico and Venezuela. VEX is a brand name for an educational technology company.

The Mashpee Middle-High School team Out of Stock, comprised of Ethan Lu, Sam Johnson, Camden Perry and Sean Ware, will also attend the world championship, said Amanda Hough, a Mashpee Middle-High School technology and engineering teacher. Out of Stock managed to snag the number one spot out of 80 teams in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and are ranked number one in their division. Team Aviators is ranked third, Hough said.

The teams are the only groups on Cape Cod headed to the Worlds, and are two of 27 teams that emerged from the Southern New England VRC High School Regional Championship, held March 5.

"We've been working for five years to prepare for this competition — since 8th grade," said Mayen. "And it's about to be crunch time."

Preparing for the Worlds means hours, daily, of practice driving and designing code.

In the next few weeks, Mayen said she and Hughes will disassemble their bot, paint it black with hot pink accents, and then re-assemble the machine. Hughes will practice driving, and Mayen will design the code for the bot using cloud-based software. The duo will then fill their days tweaking and tuning the bot.

"We are excited," Mayen said. "It's going to be a fun ride."

Before Worlds, both teams will drive their robots about two to four hours a day after school, said Hough. They will also utilize the competition ring that's located at Mashpee Commons during the evening.

"They will be putting in about six hours a day outside and inside of school combined," said Hough.

Robotics competitions can prepare students for careers in computer programming and engineering.

Throughout robotics competitions, students are preparing for careers in computer programming, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering, Hough said.

Local engineers mentor students, and help them develop problem-solving skills. It's not just about assembling nuts and bolts, Hough said. Students are also developing life skills for the future.

"They are doing work they would do at a real tech-driven company," Hough said. "They are collaborating, thinking on the fly, and multi-tasking."

The high school is also fortunate to have deep parent involvement in the program, Hough said.

Watching the two teams compete at Worlds is bittersweet, though, Hough said.

The level of competition is monumental, she said, but it will also be the last time they participate under her tutelage. Coaching the kids and encouraging their passion for robotics is a labor of love, but seeing how far they've come is what makes teaching fabulous, she said.

"Everything they do, everything they've built, everything they've designed — it's all them," she said. "I'm just the supervisor in the background."

Hughes equally admires Hough, she said.

"She fought for us to get recognition and grant money. Without her, we wouldn't be where we are now," said Hughes. "She holds a special place."

Teacher at Mashpee Middle-High School has helped female robotics team thrive.

For Mayen, Hough has also helped the Aviators thrive, even when their team was disregarded as a female robotics team.

"Sometimes we weren't listened to or weren't respected as a girl team," said Mayen. "But she helped us hold our heads up."

Hough's leadership has also, in turn, motivated the Aviators to encourage other female-led Mashpee girls robotics teams. The Aviators were the first girls robotics team at Mashpee Middle-High School, but now there are seven teams comprised of girls, as well as those that don't identify with a specific gender, said Hughes.

"Just the other day, a mother came up to us during a competition and she said we were so inspiring to her daughter," she said. "I never thought we would have that impact."

What have the young robot creators learned?

Throughout her robotics journey, Mayen said she's learned how to fail.

"Like how to be completely destroyed," she said. "Last year we went to a competition and there were 80 teams. We finished 79th. But we won our next competition. We have learned a lot of perseverance."

As Hughes looks back on the last five years, she said she's come full circle. Her first competition was at the tournament five years ago, she said.

"We won that competition, and at that time, there was only one other Mashpee robotics team," Hughes said. "Now there are so many more who are excited to learn how to do this. They are inspired by what we do."

Contact Rachael Devaney at rdevaney@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter: @RachaelDevaney.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Mashpee Middle-High School students head to world robotics competition