VEX/RobotC training

Last week I attended a VEX Academy Certification training at Sacred Hearts Academy on Oahu.

I was familiar with programming, but learned a few things.  I did learn that for VEX competitions, a lot of it comes down to the actual engineering design of the robot you use to complete the challenge. While we focused a lot on the programming aspects, we did delve into the sensors and motors and how they can be used in conjunction.  We focused primarily on programming with RobotC, but I wish we spent a bit more time on building and designing the robots.  It can be frustrating to get the sensors to work like you think they would, so it was a challenging four days.

Peter Park was a gracious host at Sacred Hearts.  They have a wonderful program that builds up from the 4th grade.  As students progress they move up in complexity with the program.  They start with Lego's (First Lego League) in elementary.  In 6-7 grade they will focus on VEX IQ, 8-9/10 grade they will focus on VEX Cortex, and then they go into the First Robotics - complexity, and cost, goes up with each level of their program.  He was great facility.

I'm hoping we can build up our Robotics program at Seabury to be on par with many of the Oahu schools.