Kiwis shone bright at the Vex Robotics World Championships held in the US recently. Fifteen local teams represented ‘KiwiBots, Aotearoa’, competing across all five divisions and bringing home six world titles.
In excess of 30,000 teams competed from more than 70 countries, with 2500 teams invited to the big event in elementary, middle, high school and university divisions.
Both of New Zealand university teams (pictured) won awards: Mantz from Manawatū won the Energy Award and Jank from Auckland won the Create Award.
KiwiBots entered five teams in high school and two teams in middle school divisions with Auckland teams Skywalker Technobots 3168T winning the Inspire Award and Glenfield College 2918D the Sportsmanship Award
Five teams were also entered into the middle and elementary age groups, with College Street Normal School team 2223H Brobots of Palmerston North finishing eight in the final and winning the Build Award. Auckland’s KidweLab 22020B Chilling in Space won the Judges Award and Rovers Team 48495A of Palmerston North made it through to their division final of top 16 teams
Locally, KiwiBots run the largest robotics competition in New Zealand, which provides children and adults with opportunities to develop communication, collaboration, and creativity.
Maintaining a diverse robotics engagement for five- to 25-year-olds, the KiwiBots Robotics programme is taught throughout the country.