By Sally Maselunas
Sophomores Hunter Johnson and Adam Metzinger intently watched as their robot successfully completed the tasks required for the annual VEX competition held at Berkner High on October 31.
At the VEX competition, students are tasked with designing and building a robot against other teams in a game-based engineering challenge. The two competitors from the Robotics Magnet received fourth place overall.
“They did great,” Robotics Magnet teacher Max Morales said. “They discovered some problems that they had and are working to make the robot better and it will be more competitive next time.”
Johnson and Metzinger designed a robot that had to pick up a ball and throw it into two nets to get points. More points were given when the robots were able to score on the further nets while less points were given to the shots made to the closer net.
“I think we did well,” Johnson said. “We did a lot better than I thought we would. I’m happy with it.”
After competing in six individual competitions against eight teams, Johnson and Metzinger qualified to quarterfinals.
“This was their first event they attended and it was the best opportunity that they’ve had to see how well it works and determine improvement,” Morales said.