OSCEOLA — An aptly-named local teen robotics team is zooming forward toward the world championship.
First it won the state championship on March 14, and now, it’s trying to raise the money to head to the FIRST World Championship from April 29 to May 2 in Houston, Texas.
XLR8 (pronounced Accelerate), based out of the GEARS Youth Robotics Center, is one of four teams from the center that made it to the state competition this year. As of the end of March, XLR8 ranked third in the nation and 13th out of 8,642 teams internationally.
This is the second time that a team from GEARS will compete in the national championship in Houston — that is, if the team can raise the money to go.
The costs include a $2,500 registration fee, though the team is trying to raise approximately $25,000 to cover the registration as well as travel and accommodations for the six teens on the team as well as their coaches to attend the national competition at the end of the month.
“We’re doing quite a bit of fundraising on our part.” Kristin Stutzman said March 31. “So far, we’ve raised $6,000.”
Excited to qualify
“I was pretty exited about it, obviously, because I’ve never qualified before,” Penn High School student Alexa Wickline, 15, said about what it was like to make it to the state competition. “It was very surprising, and it was super hard to grasp that we finally made it.”
“It was an absolute thriller. I mean, it was one of those experiences where you’re so excited, all the blood flows to your head and it was really thrilling.” Noah Stutzman, 15, of Michiana Covenant Academy added about how it felt to win the statewide competition.
Their robot, named Velocitas, after the Latin term for velocity, fits in an 18-by-18-by-18 cube and is designed to hold three balls (referred to as artifacts in the competition) and shoot those balls into a series of buckets with as much accuracy as possible.
“The goal that we had was to be able to shoot them consistently and very fast while also having a turret to be able to maneuver.” Indiana Digital Learning School student Lance Pean, 15, said.
The teams aren’t just judged on the ability of their robot but also on their team’s public speaking and what they do within their community.
“They’re interviewed about how they do community outreach, how they share STEM in their community and how they connect with professionals.” Kristin Stutzman, one of the coaches and mother to two of the team members, said.
In addition to winning the overall competition, XLR8 also won the prestigious Inspire Award.
“It’s given to the team that is the most well-rounded champion.” Kristin Stutzman said.
A place to learn and socialize
“For every season, we want to be able to do everything on the field, so we started drawing rough ideas and creating rough prototypes,” Noah said. “After that, we use CAD, like computer-aided design, to put our robot together. We can print out all of our 3D-printed parts used for the final robot, cut some of our plates out of aluminum and then build it all together.”
That process begins in September, although they don’t start regional competition till February.
“Just to see the kids go from the beginning of the season, where they’re kind of shy and in their shells,” Kristin Stutzman said, “and then to see them come to the end of the season [and] just come out and be so confident is just amazing to see and so rewarding.”
GEARS started out of a refurbished barn in Granger in 2015 and moved to its much larger facility in Osceola in July 2024. In addition to the four individual high school-level robotics teams that operate out of it, GEARS also runs several teams for elementary schoolers where all the robots are made out of Legos.
Though XLR8’s main function is competition, it also provides the students with knowledge of coding and engineering skills as well as a social outlet.
“They work hard,” Kristin Stutzman said, “but it’s also a great place for the kids to meet people and just hang out.”
Email Tribune staff writer Marguerite Marley at mmarley@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Osceola-based robotics team qualifies for FIRST World Championship
Reporting by Marguerite C.J Marley, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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