Somersfield Robotics Team earned a Judges Award at the Vex World Championships.

Nine members of the Somersfield Academy middle school robotics team travelled to Louisville, Kentucky, last week, to compete in the 2019 Vex World Championships.

The Somersfield Sharks team was up against competition from all around the world, with several teams from China and the USA dominating the leaderboard.

The middle schoolers competed in 11 matches in the qualifying rounds. They did not earn enough points to move into the playoffs, but they did impress the judges, and were honoured to receive the prestigious Judges Award.

This award is given to the team that demonstrates such exemplary effort and perseverance at the World Championships that it is deserving of special recognition.

Irene Pimentel, teacher and chaperon said: “It was a great experience to be part of a world event and learn so much from all the other teams that were there. We even got to meet and speak to a university-level team.

“They helped us by explaining how they made their robot and why they choose their final design.

“We worked hard and learnt so much about collaboration, self-management, and design improvements. Overall, it was a great experience and we look forward to building more teams for next year.”

Next year, the team has been invited to attend several regional competitions in other countries and have begun building relationships with other Vex teams from around the world.

Robotics is the perfect embodiment of Stem education because it draws on each of the core disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and distils them into a single product.

The students hope to build on a new and growing community around robotics both within academics and among corporate sponsors and industry.