Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Dynamic designs win judges’ seal of approval
IAN BUNTING
Technological wizards from Airdrie Academy scooped a top prize at the VEX robotics Scottish regional finals.
The school’s Inepticons team took home the best design book accolade from the competition, which was held in the Motherwell campus of New College Lanarkshire.
The pupils joined their counterparts from St Andrew’s High, Braidhurst High, Firpark Secondary and Brannock High for the challenge, which aimed to bring STEM (science technology engineering and maths) subjects to life by tasking teams of students with designing, building and operating a robot to play against rival teams.
Arenas were set up in the college’s social area and music studio, which allowed the 13 squads involved to practise their skills in the morning ahead of main qualifying matches in the afternoon.
There were a series of qualifiers in which pupils competed to score more points than their opposing “alliance”, with the top-scoring teams progressing to quarter-final matches and then semi-finals.
The object of the game was a “Tower Takeover” in which robots manoeuvred 66 coloured cubes into seven towers and goal areas, which were later set out in a 12ft by 12ft arena.
Computer aided design lecturer Lisa Nicholson, who helps organise the college’s VEX programme, said: “The school pupils who regularly attend our weekly after-school club at the college continue to impress us with their team-working skills, innovation and dedication.
“It is a pleasure to be able to work with them on competitions such as this, which encourage young people to get fun, hands-on experience of programming and mechanical engineering.
“More than 55 per cent of our participants are female, and I would like to thank North Lanarkshire Schools for assisting with the organisation of the event.
“The pupils who take part in these competitions are truly the engineers, programmers and designers of the future and we can’t wait to see where their skills take them.”