Students participating in the Western Pennsylvania State Championship Qualifier competed in the VEX Robotics Competition Feb. 26 at Fort Leboeuf Middle School.

Here are the details surrounding the competition and its impact on students outside of engineering.

Students who have participated in the VEX robotics competition learn fundamental aspects and skills that will play a vital role in robot building and in the classroom.

Thirty-five teams from across western Pennsylvania competed at Fort Leboeuf Middle School in the VEX Robotics Competition.

The teams were judged on many aspects.

“They can submit an engineering notebook that shows their design process throughout the year. They are also interviewed by judges, so they have to explain how they build, create, go through the whole engineering process to build these robots and test them throughout the year, then they participate in several events,” said Stacy Bukoski, a teacher at Collège Fort Lebœuf.

The theme of this year’s game is ‘Tipping Point’ where students design a robot to perform tasks while learning to work together in a group.

“I would bring him back to school as done to work with other kids and teach other kids about teamwork and not being scared,” said Franklin High School contestant Faith Baker.

Those involved with VEX Robotics have shared what it means to impact the lives of students who compete.

“It’s good. I’ve been doing various things, from coaching to basketball and everything, and it’s just another way to help young kids, especially with STEM in this computer system engineering , and the way it all happens really helps kids and really builds kids for the future,” said Steve Cutchall, program director at the Innovation Institute for Tomorrow.

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The contest winner will compete in the state championship competition in two weeks at Clarion.