Council to host Offaly VEX Robotics Championships

Offaly County Council will host the Offaly VEX Robotics Championships 2022 today from 10am to 2.45pm in O’Connor Park, Tullamore.

Local primary and secondary school students will unite to celebrate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) excellence and compete in exciting competition matches. Students have been designing, building, and coding their robots since the beginning of the school year and the competition is the culmination of their hard work.

The competition will see 50 primary school teams compete in the VEX Robotics IQ Challenge 'Pitching In' and 13 post-primary school teams compete in the VEX Robotics V5 Competition 'Tipping Point.'

STEM education puts an emphasis on preparing future generations to be successful in their careers. This programme helps to drive Offaly’s economic ambitions, support innovation and provide the foundations for future prosperity in the county.

Students will also get to experience other STEM-related activities at the event. Microsoft Dream Space will be engaging with students about microbits, programming-using minecraft, StarDome Planetarium Dome will let students experience STEM Lessons from space, and there will be a gaming area including virtual reality for students to enjoy.

Offaly County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service will have a fire truck and firefighters to discuss what is required to become a firefighter. There will be a robot demonstration area and the event will also showcase STEM activities from Offaly on the 25 sq. meter screen.

Speaking about the event, Cathaoirleach of Offaly County Council, Cllr Declan Harvey said, “We are delighted to host this event in O’Connor Park in Tullamore. It is a family event and we welcome you to join us. The competition will showcase our student’s creativity and innovation and credit has to go to the students and their teachers for all the work they put into this since the start of the school year.”

Chief Executive of Offaly County Council, Anna Marie Delaney, is looking forward to the event and said “VEX Robotics is just one of a number of exciting initiatives Offaly County Council is supporting to drive STEM education, research, and jobs. This programme really demonstrated the interest amongst our young people in Offaly to engage with STEM with over 2000 students involved this year. Students develop teamwork, critical thinking, project management, and communication skills required to prepare them to become the next generation of innovators and problem solvers. It builds on Offaly’s strong heritage in science and engineering and it gives the students the skills for an exciting future.”

Primary schools compete in the VEX IQ Challenge 'Pitching In' which is played on a 6’ x 8’ rectangular field. Two robots compete in the Teamwork Challenge as an alliance in 60-second-long teamwork matches, working collaboratively to score points.

Secondary schools compete in the VEX V5 Competition 'Tipping Point' which is played on a 12’ x 12’ square field. Two Alliances (one “red” and one “blue” — composed of two Teams each) compete in Matches consisting of a 15-second Autonomous Period, followed by a 1:45 Driver Controlled Period. Teams also compete in the Robot Skills Challenge where one robot takes the field to score as many points as possible. These matches consist of Driving Skills Matches, which will be entirely driver-controlled, and Programming Skills Matches, which will be autonomous with limited human interaction.

This STEM programme is delivered in partnership with primary and post-primary schools, Offaly County Council, Munster Technological University, Offaly Local Development Company, Offaly Local Enterprise Office and Government.