Baldwin Robotics Heads to World Championships

Baldwin Robotics team with their robot. Courtesy of Suter.

By Sonia Isotov

Baldwin Robotics is heading to the VEX Robotics World Championships in Anaheim, California to compete against teams from nearly 20 different countries from April 19-21.

In the upcoming championship Baldwin High School’s robotics team, Baldwin Robotics, will join more than 10,000 of the world’s brightest middle school, high school and university students and team mentors to compete in three days of intense back-to-back robotic “mash-ups.”

“Baldwin Robotics always manages to surprise and raise some eyebrows, and I do not think the VEX Robotics Competition World Championship will be any different,” said Gary Suter, Baldwin Robotics team mentor.

“Like they say, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the fight in the dog, and Baldwin Robotics got plenty of bite. The robotics shop is bustling with activity. Team Captain Jun Sasaki and members are refining their design and building a new robot that they will unleash at the world championship,” continued Suter.

Baldwin Robotics currently has 3 VEX teams: 2439A, 2439B, and 2439X Team 2439X has qualified to compete in the VEX Championship on April 19-21, 2012 in Anaheim, California. Courtesy of Baldwin Robotics.

Suter has been teaching on Maui since 1984, most of those years at Baldwin High School where he teaches carpentry.

Baldwin Robotics has been sponsored for the last four years by the Maui Economic Development Board Inc. “We would not be where we are now with their support throughout the years,” Suter said.

Baldwin Robotics has been a strong competitor for many years, but not until 2012 has it advanced to the World Championships.

Here’s a list of their accomplishments:

• 1st seed and 1st place alliance at the Hawaii FIRST Regional in 2012
• 2nd seed and 2nd place alliance at the Hawaii FIRST Regional in 2011
• Creativity Award at the Hawaii FIRST Regional in 2011
• 2nd place alliance at the San Diego FIRST Regional in 2011
• 1st place alliance at the Maui Fair VEX Robotics Competition in 2011
• 2nd place alliance at the Hilo VEX Competition in 2011
• Amaze Award at the Hilo VEX Competition in 2011
• 2nd place alliance at all three VEX Competitions entered into in 2010
• Judges Award at the VEX Pan Pacific Competition in 2010

The 2012 VEX Robotics Competition World Championship serves as the pinnacle event of the 2011-2012 VEX Robotics Competition season for the fastest growing educational and competitive robotics program in the world.

This year, 600 out of the nearly 5,000 in-classroom and after-school VEX Robotics Competition teams have earned the right to bring their robotic creations to the world championships and face off in the robot ring with their toughest competitors playing the 2011-2012 season game VEX Gateway.

Baldwin Robotics qualified for the tournament after dedicating countless hours honing their design, building, programming and strategy skill sets to outperform others throughout the year at local, regional and national VEX Robotics Competition events.

The team built their customized robots using the VEX Robotics Design System to compete playing Gateway, a game that takes place on a 12’x12’ square field where two alliances composed of two teams each compete against one another.

Each match consists of a 20 second autonomous period where robots are controlled by onboard software programmed by the students, followed by two minutes of human-operated play. The object of the Gateway game is to attain a higher score than your opponent by directing your robot to pick up colored balls and barrels and placing them in circular goals of varying heights.

For more information visit RobotEvents.com/championship and http://www.vexrobotics.com/competition/vex-robotics-competition/.