Manassas Park Middle School Teams Advance to Robotics Competitions

Two Manassas Park Middle School robotics teams earned spots at the Roboticon event in Prince William County this month after successfully competing Saturday in the Prince William Central Qualifier for VEX robotics.

A total of three teams from Manassas Park Middle competed in the central qualifier held at Metz Middle School in Manassas on Saturday. 

This is only the second year Manassas Park Middle School students have competed in the event, but two teams from the school are set to compete in Roboticon, an invitation-only competition scheduled for March 10 at Garfield High School, said Travis Bower, the coach of the Manassas Park team.

Of the two Manassas Park teams that advanced, one earned an invitation to the world robotics championship in Anaheim, Calif. from April 19 to April 21, Bower said.

The Manassas Park team earned the spot by winning the Design Award, one of four awards that carry automatic bids to the championship.

"The Design Award is given to a team that not only has a strong design for their robot, but also has a well-detailed engineering notebook to create the story of how their team worked together to design and build their robot, as well as work through any problems that may arise along the way," Bower said.

The students on the Design Award winning team are:Brendan Kelly, Emily Xu, R.J. Weaver, Kira Wence, Mudassir Lodi, Katherine Canales and Caleb Marshall.