{"id":447,"date":"2020-01-30T19:57:04","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T19:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/ise\/?p=447"},"modified":"2024-12-10T16:31:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T16:31:06","slug":"ut-hosts-vex-robotics-tower-takeover-state-qualifier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/ise\/ut-hosts-vex-robotics-tower-takeover-state-qualifier\/","title":{"rendered":"UT Hosts VEX Robotics Tower Takeover State Qualifier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robots and their creators took over the Alumni Memorial Building recently during the \"\"Vex Robotics University of Tennessee Tower Takeover Tournament sponsored by UT\u2019s own VEX University robotics team, YNOT, and the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0VEX Robotics Competition\u00a0is a\u00a0robotics<\/a>\u00a0program for elementary through university age students.\u00a0 During the competition season, students must design, build, program, and drive a robot to complete a specific challenge, which changes annually.\u00a0 Twenty-five thousand teams from more than 60 countries compete in regional Vex qualifiers in order to advance to their state or country\u2019s championship.\u00a0 The winners of these events then move on to the World championship.\u00a0 The VEX Robotics World Championship, run by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation each April, has been named the largest robotics competition in the world by\u00a0Guinness World Records<\/a>.\u00a0 It is here that students interact with industry professionals from sponsoring organizations including the US Army, Northrup Grumman, Google, Tesla, NASA, Autodesk, Dell, Mathworks, Microchip, UPS, Nordson, Nissan, Robot Mesh, Texas Instruments, and Toyota.<\/p>\n

\"\"The UT event began as a vision of Vex University team YNOT founder, Grant Kobes, as part of his Honors Leadership Program (HLP) coached leadership skills coursework for student organization leaders. Students in the HLP are tasked with creating a leadership plan for carrying out a significant event that benefits the community.\u00a0 Kobes spent the semester inventorying his leadership strengths and weaknesses while outlining the multiple steps necessary to make the Vex tournament a reality.\u00a0 \u201cPutting this event together required me to implement many of the leadership skills that I struggle with.\u00a0 However, the event provided an opportunity for me to mobilize and enable VexU team members who naturally possess these skills to take on leadership roles of their own,\u201d says Kobes.<\/p>\n

Kobes founded the VexU competitive robotics team on campus his first year, \"\"building the team\u2019s first competition bot on the floor of his dorm room.\u00a0 Since then, the team has expanded to include multiple members working in their own dedicated lab space on campus and reaching out to the community in big ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is to provide a practical way for middle and high school students to use the knowledge and skills they are learning in the STEM fields today to help them see the relevance of their education for tomorrow,\u201d says Kobes. \u00a0\u201cMy leadership focus over the remaining two years at UT is to continue expanding my team\u2019s footprint on campus through hosting Vex events, scrimmages, and workshops on campus.\u201d\u00a0 Over the past six months, Grant and team YNOT have been collaborating with John Kobza, Head of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Laura O’Shaughnessy, Assistant Professor of Practice, to increase the visibility of the ISE department for younger students using Vex robotics. \u201cHosting an official Vex event on UT\u2019s campus allows us to highlight the features of the Tickle College of Engineering that would appeal to these future students,\u201d Kobes claims.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

UT\u2019s first official Vex tournament, Tower Takeover, took place in the Alumni Memorial Building on January 11, 2020 bringing over 150 students, coaches, family and friends to Rocky Top.\u00a0 Thirty-two teams from around the state competed for seven qualifying spots at the 2020 Tennessee Vex State Championship. \u201cOur event filled in less than thirty minutes once registration went live online,\u201d says Kobes.\u00a0 Upon their arrival on campus, students and their coaches were treated to T-shirts and swag bags from the Tickle College of Engineering and the ISE department.\u00a0 \u201cWe wanted to get information into the hands of perspective students and their parents,\u201d says ISE department head, John Kobza, who helped team YNOT orchestrate the event. \u201cThese kids are already budding industrial engineers integrating technology, people, and information to maximize their performance in the Vex challenge. They could have great careers as engineers. UT is a great option for them as there are many branches of study available in the Tickle College of Engineering. I hope to see them as UT Volunteers in a few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some teams took advantage of their trip to Rocky Top by coming to UT on Friday \"\"afternoon and taking campus tours.\u00a0 \u201cMany students from technical schools, as well as rural programs around the state, were on campus for the first time in their lives,\u201d says Kobes. \u201cWith the implementation of the new Tennessee Promise scholarship, robotics students who never dreamed they could afford to attend UT for engineering are now perfect candidates and team YNOT wants to be the first to welcome them to campus.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cStudents who have participated in Vex robotics since elementary or even middle school come to college with multiple years of experience with the engineering design process,\u201d Kobes attests.\u00a0 \u201cThey are not afraid to take risks and acknowledge mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fostering collaboration and teamwork is another important aspect of the Vex program as it requires students to possess skills from multiple engineering disciplines and beyond.\u00a0 \u201cFrom the first day, teams must begin to discuss and agree on various design iterations,\u201d says Kobes.\u00a0 \u201cNext, CAD artists, machinists, programmers, quality\/ testing assessors, and notebook documentation specialists are needed to complete the task.\u00a0 Experienced Vex team members will make perfect team leaders for projects required during their college engineering curriculum,\u201d says Kobes.<\/p>\n

\"\"Diversity was also highlighted at the recent event. In 2017, Vex introduced an initiative called \u2018Girl Powered\u2019 in an effort to involve more females in competitive robotics. The program offered workshops and events specifically for female students.\u00a0 Since then, Vex has seen an explosion in the number of females on competition teams, as well as all-girl teams.\u00a0 \u201cFor example, the Talbot, Tennessee team, Higher Calling, comprised of only two female high school students, won the Excellence Award at last weekend\u2019s event,\u201d says Kobes.\u00a0 \u201cThese girls can hold their own against any team in our state.\u201d<\/p>\n

In cooperation with the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation (RECF), Knox county schools, and team YNOT, 25 new Vex teams have been founded this year alone.\u00a0 Team YNOT vice president and outreach director, Clare Remy, already sees positive results from their efforts. \u201cWe were honored to have 20 Vex students from Green Magnet Academy elementary school, which we mentor, serve as our field resetters during the competition,\u201d says Remy.\u00a0 \u201cThese young students will grow up knowing they belong at UT\u2019s engineering program.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Vex Robotics University of Tennessee Tower Takeover Tournament sponsored by UT\u2019s own VEX University robotics team, YNOT, and the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering was held on campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,38],"tags":[229,226,227,228],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-department-news","category-ise-students","tag-guinness-world-records","tag-vex-robotics-ut-tower-takeover-tournament","tag-vex-university-robotics-team","tag-ynot"],"yoast_head":"\nUT Hosts VEX Robotics Tower Takeover State Qualifier - Industrial and Systems Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Vex Robotics UT Tower Takeover Tournament sponsored by the VEX University robotics team, YNOT, and ISE was held on campus.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/ise\/ut-hosts-vex-robotics-tower-takeover-state-qualifier\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UT Hosts VEX Robotics Tower Takeover State Qualifier - 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