Harker upper and middle school VEX Robotics teams earned many awards competing in VEX Robotics Competition (also known as VEX VRC) events, beginning in October. VEX VRC is the largest and fastest growing robotics program in the world where teams compete in three areas: tournament-style, robot skills competition and judged awards.
The nine-month long season culminated with three important events: the Signature NorCal in February, the California State Championships in March and the VEX Robotics World Championship in May.
Juniors Amrita Pasupathy and Nidhya Shivakumar, sophomore Claire Su, and Kaitlyn Su, grade 9, were Division Champions at the VEX Robotics World Championships and finished 14th among 818 teams in the Robot Skills Competition. Over the course of the season, they were three-time tournament champions, two-time tournament finalists, won two Excellence Awards (the highest award given to the top all-around team) and won two other awards (Design, Judges) at local events.
Sophomores Sriram Bhimaraju, Zachary Blue and Jordan Labio won the Excellence Award at the California State Championships. They also won the Think Award at the World Championships and finished 21st in the Robot Skills Competition (among 818 teams). They also placed second in Robot Skills and won the Think Award at the NorCal Signature event. At other local events, they were named the Robot Skills Champion four times, tournament finalists twice and won a Design Award (awarded to the team with the best engineering design process).
Robert Costin and Ramit Goyal, both grade 10, qualified for the World Championships with their strong showing in the Robot Skills Competition at the California State Championships. They were the Tournament Champions at the RoboLabs December event in Dublin.
Risa Chokhawala, Orion Ghai, Rohan Goyal, Ayden Grover and Krishna Muddu, all grade 7 were division finalists at the middle school VEX Robotics World Championships. They won the Think Award at the middle school California State Championships in Sacramento and were also finalists at the NorCal Signature event. Their season concluded with a tournament championship, and an Innovate Award at local events.
Another team of seventh graders — Brandon Labio, Aaron Luo, Trisha Shivakumar and Nathan Yee — won the Design Award at the World Championships and finished 10th among 508 teams in Robot Skills. They were also Robot Skills champions and won the Think Award at the middle school California State Championships. Over the course of the season, they also won one tournament championship, one Robot Skills championship and an Excellence Award at local events.
