Buckeye Central robotics team competes at VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas

Until Buckeye Central's STEAM lab opened last spring, the high school robotics program was squeezed into Zac Kaple's classroom, where he also taught large math classes.

"It was just really tight in there," recalled Noah Wilson, a sophomore. He gestured to a low-walled arena where the students' robots are operated. "We couldn't even have this whole thing set up; we had just half of it. So it was really hard to do anything, really. But now we have a ton of space. It's awesome down here."

A year after moving into the new lab, four Buckeye Central High School students were ready for an even bigger stage: The 2022 VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas, Texas.

3,000 teams from 36 nations competed in Dallas

As runners-up in the state competition, the team of Elliot Geissman, who just graduated; Isaac Hiler, a sophomore; Jacob "J.J." Hiler, a sophomore, and Noah Wilson qualified to advance to the May 5-7 world competition, where more than 3,000 teams from 36 nations competed.

Their robot — dubbed BucksKrieg — went five for five and finished 33rd in their division — but that wasn't enough to advance to the next round.

"That puts them I would say in the top 40% of the robots at the world competition," Kaple said. "Overall, they had a very solid performance, considering that the level of competition was so high. … the experience was a big learning experience for us being in this program."

This is the fourth year the school's robotics program has competed in Ohio and the first time a team has advanced to the world competition, Kaple said. Several teams have made it to the state contest in the past.

"This one's on a much larger scale," Elliot said. "We go to local ones and there's like 80 to 100 robots there, but here, there was like 800. But they're split into 10 different divisions. So it was like a bunch of small competitions at the same place, and then the winners from each one competed for the championship. But we didn't win our division, so we didn't advance to the final."

So what was it like in Dallas?

"Hot," said one team member.

"It was a great experience," Noah said.

The teammates agreed hanging out together and meeting new people was a highlight of the trip.

"Also in general just having fun," J.J. said.

Each year, VEX announces a new game, requiring a robot with different capabilities. This year's game was "Tipping Point."

"Basically you just try to score more points than your opponent, and there's different ways to score points, and it's really complex," Noah said.

A new game for next year was announced during the the world competition.

'More than just a competition'

Working with robots can have real-world applications — Elliot said he plans to study engineering at The Ohio State University-Mansfield — but that's not the only benefit of the competition, their teacher said.

"It’s more than just a competition," Kaple said. "There’s a teamwork aspect. Collaboration is huge with STEM education ... Each person learns their role and contributes in that role, but they learn all the soft skills that hopefully can translate into the workforce here in a few years for this group."

For example, teams participate in interviews as part of the competition, Kaple said.

"Yeah, they build a robot and they compete, but they learn all of these other skills that hopefully translate to their jobs, again with the interview, because that's a big part of it," he said. "And how they work with one another, and people skills are another big thing. Yeah, that's important what they do over there, but all of those other behind-the-scenes things are really important as well."

In addition to the annual state contest, the school's three robotics teams also compete locally.

There was a competition at Marion Harding High School this year, and another in Norwalk, Kaple said. Kalahari Resort in Sandusky had a signature event that attracted teams from as far away as Tennessee and California. "We see Galion High School at a few competitions, but I don't know of any other ones in the area that are doing this sort of thing," he said.

"The cool thing that's happening is this is allowing kids to find interest in something that they never thought they'd be interested in," Kaple said. "I love it. It provides a competitive atmosphere in a nontraditional way, and that's what makes this program unique. I'm very lucky to be a part of it."

ggoble@gannett.com

419-559-7263

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Buckeye Central sends team to Robotics World Championship in Dallas