A record 25 teams from 11 school districts converged on Jefferson Middle for the South Sound STEM Robotics Invitational on Monday, June 2.  This annual event takes challenges from OSD’s STEM Robotics 101 curriculum and is open to schools using this free online resource. This was the fifth installment of this end-of-year STEM Robotics competition, which began with 4 OSD schools in 2010 and has grown over 50% a year since then.  Over 100 student designed/built/programmed robots competed in this year’s competition.

Teams from elementary through high school competed head-to-head in three events; Robo-Dragsters, Line Racers and Sumo-Bots.  First and second place awards were presented for top performers in each event, as well as overall School Champions in the Elementary/Middle and Jr. High/High School Divisions.  This year, teams from as far south as Camas Washington competed.  Tremendous sportsmanship was demonstrated by all participants, from helping each other in “the Pits” to congratulating each other on the competition fields.

Robo-Dragsters

In the Robo-Dragsters, robots must start upon detecting the movement of the starting flag, race straight and fast to the finish line, and stop as a result of sensing the dark finish line.  Several races were determined by 1/30 of second with instant-replay photo-finishes.   Camas High School took first place over Hayes Freedom High School in the High School Division, while the Olympia Regional Learning Academy (ORLA) took first place over Jefferson Middle School in the Middle school Division.

Line Racers

In the Line Racer, robots must follow a dark line around a curvy, looped course – a course which contestants do not see until the day of the competition.  Teams may control their robot’s speed through a wired-remote-control as they walk it around the course, however they cannot steer the robot – it must be tracking the edge of the line at all times by itself.  Competing robots start on opposite sides of the course and the race is over after 2 laps, or when one robot catches up to the other.  Liberty Middle School placed first, just beating out their cross-town competitors Camas High School in the High School Division, while Washington Elementary School dominated this event in the Middle School Division, taking home both the first and second place awards.

Sumo-Bots

In the Sumo-Bots, opposing robots attempt to push each other out of a 3-foot square arena.  Teams must design, build and program a robot which keeps itself in the white arena while attempting to push its opponent entirely onto the the black border.  If one robot becomes unable to move while the other still can, the mobile robot is declared the winner.  Camas High School earned the first place award by edging out the Avanti High School team in the final.in the High School Division, while Centralia Middle School defeated Jefferson Middle School in a nail-biter final in the Middle School Division.

School Champions

All the events are run as double elimination tournaments, so each team competes at least twice in the contest.  Each school is allowed up to two entries in each of the three events – so most schools ran their own local competition to determine their top-two entries, with only the best of the best making the trip to the Invitational.  At the event, teams are awarded points for all finishes 9th place and above, including ties, to determine the overall school champions.  Detailed team results are shown at the bottom of this page.

In the High School Division, Camas High School was awarded the School Championship Award, while Washing Middle School placed second and a third-place tie was split between Avanti High School and Black Hills High School.  In The Middle School Division, Jefferson Middle School repeated as the Middle School champions, while Washington Elementary School and Centralia Middle School placed second and third respectively.

A special thank you goes out to all the volunteers, tech support and logistics helpers who made this event possible for our students.  Thank you for allowing us to run a quality event.

Congratulations to all our participants and award winners….. see you all next year!!

Overall Team Results