INAUGURAL VEX ROBOTICS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP COMPETITION ANNOUNCED Students will compete with robots created from the VEX® Robotics Design System™
LOS ANGELES – DECEMBER 12, 2007 – More than 1,000 high school students from across the globe will join together to compete in the inaugural Vex Robotics World Championship competition, playing the game “Bridge Battle” developed by Innovation First, Inc., at California State University, Northridge on May 2-3, 2008. Winning teams from Vex Robotics Bridge Battle local and state competitions will be invited to participate in the World Championship along with 30 winning teams from the Asian Robotics League (ARL) Bridge Battle competition. Additionally, top teams from other competitions using the Vex Robotics Design System, including the FIRST Tech Challenge Quad Quandary and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Savage Soccer Vex- based competitions will be invited to participate.
Drat! That’s the week before spring semester finals! :mad: Otherwise, I bet I’d be there.
No, I don’t go to CSUN. It doesn’t surprise me that they’re hosting a championship event. Though I do wonder where they’ll hold it. (The space they had for Hangin’ Around wouldn’t fit 1000 teams.)
I have to go to my brothers graduation, I am so bummed to miss this. My team is helping run the event. I will still be helping with a lot of the stuff, just wont actually be there. But my priorities are in order, although it stinks that 2 major events are happening at the same time.
I am also quite curious to see where in CSUN this will be held. I live 4 minutes away and am there a lot for other things, and I can’t seem to pinpoint a part of campus that I have been on that would be a suitable place to have a Vex event for over 1000 students (thinking about the team areas and all). Then again, the campus probably has an area somewhere, I mean if not this event wouldn’t have been placed there.
But, a best of luck to the group and teams who are running/helping/planning it. I would like to help out and am sure the rest of the team would as well, so don’t hesitate to ask!
Nica, Robodox will contact people for help later, so glad to know you and Element are interested. We will contact you later about it. Its still a long ways away. It is very very exciting.
In speaking with the people from CSUN, it seems they’ve been able to secure all the athletic facilities they need for this event. At this point, I think they have both the Matadome (basketball gymnasium, which I think seats over 3,000) reserved in addition to the entire Redwood Hall and a second gymnasium right next door for pit areas. They are confident they will be able to host around 100 teams, and if the demand exceeds that, we’ll see what options are available.
We’re also very excited about this event and are thrilled that it will be inclusive of all the top teams from Vex Bridge Battle events, FTC events, WPI Savage Soccer events, and more. We’ve heard from many teams in various countries that they are really looking forward to competing with teams from North America - so it should be a true World Championship celebration with an amazing collection of teams.
There are a number of great partners and sponsors working together to support the event - in particular, I’ve got to send kudos to Autodesk for making a direct donation to support every participating team by reducing the entry fee to only $100 per team (from the planned $300). Very cool.
Anyway, just wanted to clarify that CSUN does have facilities capable and available to host a great high quality event for many teams. Should be a terrific celebration and competition to finish the 2007/2008 season.
Well, most teams have 10+ kids. So I’m guessing 50-100 teams. They had no problem doing 50ish teams last weekend, so I think they could do it. Especially if they did two divisions.
EDIT: Jason has a much better answer… Let the page sit for a while before replying, didn’t see those new post…
So the event starts tomorrow. Who will be attending this event? I was curious seeing no one has really been discussing it…
I’ll be stopping by Saturday before work, seeing I live ridiculously close to the venue.
I will be watching this event via webcast. I like how this event is extremely international (I believe half the teams are international team). Go Canada and China!
Now I have this mental picture of Karthik at the airport surrounded by Vex robots, all waiting to board the plane. “Bwoo hah hah!” he exclaims. “No one caught on that Simbotics annihilation of FRC was just a diversion to keep the world from seeing my real master plan: truly autonomous Vex robots!” The robots all spin around in gleeful circles, snapping their grippers and juggling balls.
