MoonBots 2015 Challenge Begins with Call for Explorers, Adventurers and Dreamers
The 2015 MOONBOTS Challenge launches today and its a great way for kids to learn about space, robotics, and pick up some STEM skills at the same time.
Continue Reading
Tag: vex robotics
Build Blitz: Six Weeks in 72 Hours
Tomorrow morning high school kids, teachers, and mentors all around the world will be glued to NASA TV for the FRC 2014 Kickoff. The FRC (FIRST Robotics Competiton) season starts at Kickoff and runs exactly 6 weeks. Teams will need to build their competition robot and seal it up for shipment to the regional events. Most of the teams will take all of that time, working late nights and long weekends to produce a competition worthy robot.
Continue Reading
VEX Robotics Competition in San Antonio, Texas
On Friday, January 3rd, about 60 middle and high school teams will come together at Sunset Station in San Antonio to test their mettle, and metal, in a day of robot competition. The event is hosted by the US Army in conjunction with a little larger event happening on Saturday in the Alamodome. We don’t expect to see near the 40,000 spectators that the All American Bowl will draw, but we will certainly be as energetic and cheer our favorite teams to victory.
Continue Reading
FRC Season 2014: Build Blitz
The FIRST Robotics Competition season starts this Saturday and the guys at VEX are kicking it off with a marathon build blitz. Paul Copioli and John V-Neun, president and vice president of VEX Robotics will go head to head with hand picked teams in an attempt to build the best competitive robot in just 72 hours.
Continue Reading
VEX Assembler Webcast Today, 4:00pm Pacific Time!
VEX Robotics and Autodesk are teaming up to provide a powerful new CAD software for their VEX IQ robotics program. VEX Assembler is powered by Autodesk 123D and helps students assemble parts, test their designs, and even build an entire VEX IQ robot.
Continue Reading2013 U.S. Army All-American Bowl – Future Bots
On Friday we packed up the family van and headed to San Antonio for the first VEX event to be held in the Alamo City. Hosted by the U.S. Army in conjunction with the All-American Bowl, the event featured nearly …
Continue ReadingThe 2012 VEX Robotics World Championships
Last weekend, and the week preceding it, my daughter and I attended the 2012 VEX Robotics World Championships at the Anaheim Convention Center. This is my fourth and her second year working at the event and it was the most …
Continue ReadingShh, It’s Robot Season! Find a Robot Competition Near You (GeekDad Weekly Rewind)
Robot season is upon us and the competition is starting to heat up. If you happen to find a free weekend I recommend that you look up a local competition and check it out. It is amazing how fired up …
Continue ReadingShh, It’s Robot Season! Find a Robot Competition Near You
Robot season is upon us and the competition is starting to heat up. If you happen to find a free weekend I recommend that you look up a local competition and check it out. It is amazing how fired up …
Continue ReadingFreescale Technology Forum’s Make It Challenge Next Week
I’ll be heading down to San Antonio, Texas next week to attend the Freescale Technology Forum. This year they are hosting a pair of Make It Challenges, the Mechatronics Challenge and the Tower System Challenge. Both are based on the …
Continue Reading2011 VEX Robotics World Championship: Wrap-Up
It’s been a week since I flew home from Orlando and I can finally say that I am caught up on sleep. Recovery takes longer each year but the event has also grown significantly so I can’t blame it all …
Continue Reading2011 VEX Robotics World Championship: Saturday
Yesterday’s opening ceremony was amazing. The parade of nations was the largest ever with more teams and more nations than last year. Two of new additions this year were the Cherokee Nation and Saudi Arabia. I’m sure there were more, …
Continue Reading2011 VEX Robotics World Championship: Friday
Yesterday was exhausting, but we still managed to have some fun. Disney brought out a DJ and lots of confetti fireworks for the opening. It was quite the fanfare with music, stilt dancers, and few Disney characters walking about for …
Continue Reading2011 VEX Robotics World Championship: Thursday
Blast off! Wednesday went well. Over 250 of the teams took advantage of the early check-in and many of them beat the rush to get their robots inspected and approved for competition. As I’d expected, I spent the day setting …
Continue Reading2011 VEX Robotics World Championship: Wednesday
T minus one day and counting. Today starts my first full day at the 2011 VEX Robotics World Championship. I’ll be helping to set up the field controllers and tournament manager computers, and tying down any loose ends. Everything should …
Continue ReadingKari Byron to Emcee 2011 VEX Robotics World Championship
Just in time for the National Robotics Week, the VEX Robotics World Championships are coming to Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex on April 14th to 16th. Everyone is invited and admission is free to the general public. …
Continue Reading2011 VEX Robotics World Championship: Tuesday
T minus 2 days and counting. At an hour that more closely resembled my average bed-time, I packed up the family and headed toward the airport this morning. We are on our way to the ESPN Wide World of Sports …
Continue ReadingRobot Season: Battle by the Beach
We’re heading down to Galveston, Texas, with the robot this weekend for Austin Middle School’s Battle by the Beach VEX Robotics competition. Since qualifying for the World Championships at UT Dallas, we have been busy with two different robot designs. …
Continue ReadingRobot Season: 10 Days To The Next Competition
Our next competition is the East Texas VEX Patriot Challenge in Tyler, TX on February 5th. As usual we put off working on the robot til the 11th hour and now we’re pulling more than a few late nights getting …
Continue ReadingRobot Season: We’re Going To Disney World!
This past Saturday we woke with the dawn (a rare occurrence for any member of our household) and drove into Dallas for the 2nd Annual UT Dallas – Fearless Engineering VEX Robotics Competition. We — my daughter Hannah and I — didn’t …
Continue ReadingThe JVN Design Challenge: VEX Marvels
My co-worker, Director of Product Development for VEX Robotics John V-Neun, has proposed a challenge on his blog. John is looking for a marvelous VEX robot that is cool, fun, and either autonomous or intuitive to control. It does not …
Continue Reading2010 VEX Robotics World Championship Results
The VEX Robotics Championship have come and gone and I would have to say they were a resounding success. Over 400 VEX teams competed across four divisions for numerous trophies and awards. The tournament champions were an alliance of two …
Continue ReadingArcAttack vs. Grant Imahara
ArcAttack and their singing Tesla coils made two appearances at the VEX World Championships this weekend. Their performance of the Star-Spangled Banner at the opening ceremony was totally cool, but the Faraday cage gave me the most memorable experience of …
Continue ReadingBusting a Myth about the 2010 VEX Robotics Competition in Dallas.
We can now say for certain that Grant Imahara from Mythbusters will be an emcee at the VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas on Saturday April 24th. The competition runs from Thursday April 22nd through Saturday the 24th at the …
Continue ReadingUT Dallas – Fearless Engineering VEX Robotics Competition
On Saturday we competed at a VEX Robotics Competition at UT Dallas. Sponsored by Fearless Engineering and the US Navy. We arrived at the University of Texas at Dallas campus about 7:30 and there was still frost on the trees …
Continue ReadingWOC VEX Robotics Invitational
The Geeklets and I recently had the pleasure of attending our first VEX Robotics Competition. We took our team, The Screaming Weasels, to the Hilton Anatole in Dallas for the WOC VEX Robotics Invitational. It was an early start for …
Continue ReadingAn Electrifying Performance by ArcAttack
Tesla Coils, Jacob’s Ladders, and even the simple Van De Graff generators make me happy. Throw some Pulse Rate Modulation at a solid state Tesla Coil and I can only be described as giddy. My first chance to see ArcAttack …
Continue ReadingVEX Robotics Competition Driver Skills Challenge
In addition to the head on head competition, the VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) also includes two single bot challenges. Programming Skills tests the team’s bility to write autonomous code to score points. There are white lines on the playing field …
Continue ReadingVEX World Championship 2009
It has been over a week since we started the 2009 VEX Robotics World Championship and I think I may finally be caught up on sleep. I arrived at the convention center last Wednesday a little after noon and immediately …
Continue ReadingRobot Overview: VEXspeed
One of the greatest challenges when designing a VEX robot is balancing weight, speed and controllability. When competing in a 12 foot square arena speed might not seem too important, but what about on the open road, or in my …
Continue Reading