High school students from across Middle and East Tennessee will converge on Cookeville Saturday to compete for two spots in the state robotics championship.
Autonomous Robotics Club Chairman Coby Smith said the event brings together aspiring engineers to test their designs in a specific game format created for this season. Smith said the roster includes 32 total teams representing 13 different high schools spanning the Middle and East Tennessee areas.
“So at our tournament we actually have two qualification spots for the state championship,” Smith said. “So a lot of the teams that are coming here, they just have to apply to the competition when we released our registration, which released in January and in two days, it was fully filled out with 32 teams. And so these teams are going to be trying to compete for the state championship and we have, like I said, we have two qualifying spots. So we have a spot for the team that wins the Excellence Award and a team that wins the Tournament Champion Award.”
This year’s challenge, titled “Pushback,” requires teams to maneuver robots to push colored blocks into tube-like goals before parking in specific zones for extra points during the final seconds of the match.
“And these teams that compete on the field, they have either blue or red blocks,” Smith said. “And so the red team is trying to push the red blocks into the goals, while the blue team is trying to push the blue blocks into the goals. And at the very end, the very last 30 seconds, robots have a chance to go into the park zones to score additional points.”
While many schools are traveling from within an hour drive, Smith said one local homeschool team from the Upper Cumberland area will also participate.
“But it is definitely growing,” Smith said. “And it’s very popular I think because it gives an opportunity for people to apply engineering skills. So maybe if you’re not sports-inclined but you’re really, really good at designing or building, you get the chance to apply that and compete against others.”
The competition provides high school students a chance to experience the Tennessee Tech campus, a stark contrast to when Smith was a student and his high school did not yet have a robotics program. Smith said his former high school launched a team the year after he graduated and will be competing at this event.
“I look forward to all the fun that’s going to be had,” Smith said. “You know, even though teams are, you know, facing off head-to-head against each other, ultimately we’re all here to have fun and just grow and learn. You know, robotics is definitely a growing field and being able to participate in it is just an amazing experience.”
The one-day event begins Saturday at 7:30 a.m. and concludes around 5:00 p.m. following a bracket-style elimination round for the top 16 teams.