A dozen pupils from a Watford school have been praised for their “astonishing achievement” as they prepare to fly to the United States next week to compete in the world finals of a robotics championship.
The Year 9 and Year 10 students from Watford Grammar School for Boys will be two of the ten teams from the UK who will be battling it out at the VEX World Robotics Championship in Dallas, Texas, from Wednesday to Friday, May 3 after qualifying through the national championships last month.
The Year 9 ‘Mekanix’ team consists of designers Muhammad Daniyal Nadeem and Angad Walia, builders Aaron Patel and Izyan Mirza, and programmers Mustafa Mujahid Husain and Dhruv Datt.
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Their Year 10 counterparts – named ‘High IQ’ – will also be out to impress in the finals. This team is made up of designers Edgar Barnes and Eevan Pennant-Shah, builders Angus Marshall and Muhammed Umer Khan, and programmers Robert Kartalov and Navaneeth Prakash Menon.
Headmaster Ian Cooksey said: “This is an astonishing achievement by our students, who have applied skill and dedication against some excellent schools nationally and now will have the wonderful opportunity to travel to the States and compete at International standard. The whole school community is very proud!”
Led by Dr Thomas Hedges, the school’s technology and innovation lead and a computer science teacher, the two teams have made great strides in the international robotics season.
Mekanix had narrowly missed out on an automatic UK National Championships qualifier at 'QE's Battle for Barnet' in January, before securing it a week later with a tournament win in Coventry.
High IQ improved steadily throughout the season and were able to secure one of the last available qualifying spots on offer thanks to their World Skills Ranking, just inside the top 50 teams in the UK at the time.
The format of the two-day national championships in Telford was split into two parallel divisions of 30 teams, with one of the school’s teams in each division.
All matches were 60-second cooperative games, with an alliance of two teams paired together randomly within the same division, meaning students have to quickly establish a bond and a strategy to be competitive.
Both Mekanix and High IQ were very successful in this area, scoring consistently in their qualification matches to end the first day first and third in their respective divisions.
The pressure ramped up in the remaining qualification contests as all teams vied for the best possible ranking going into the finals matches.
A good last round from both teams meant they mirrored each other's performance, qualifying with a ranking of second, both with average scores in the high 80s, pairing them with the top team in their divisions for the finals matches.
High IQ were chasing 100 to win in the finals match, just narrowly falling short but doing enough to secure the runner-up award for their division and qualify for the World Championships.
Mekanix bravely chased a colossal 111 to win their division finals and they also came away with the division runner-up award to also secure their flight to Dallas.
Both teams picked up a further award from the judges’ interviews throughout the tournament: Sportsmanship for High IQ and the Build Award for Mekanix.
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