NAHS Robotics Team Headed to World Championship

NORTH ANDOVER - The North Andover High School robotics team has qualified for the prestigious 2017 VEX Worlds Championship in Louisville, Kentucky next month.

But to attend the championship on April 19-22, the students have created a GoFundMe account to raise at least $5,000 to fund the trip.

NAHS joins an elite group of only a handful of other high school robotics programs from Massachusetts heading to the VEX World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky.

Approximately 25% of the competition is from outside the United States.

This year, 540 teams will compete over four action-packed days in the Kentucky Exposition Center.

NAHS Team 8568F now has a deadline of April 19 to perfect their robot and raise money for the trip.

The team has set up a set up an online crowdfunding campaign here: https://www.gofundme.com/2017-...

Donations of any size would be greatly appreciated, writes Mike Motherway, Technology/Engineering Teacher North Andover High School.

According to the GoFundMe page the "journey to the tourney” began in 2014 when North Andover High School (NAHS) received a generous amount of money from Chelmsford based employer Kronos after winning the firm’s “Thanks to a Teacher” contest.

The money helped fund the purchase of nine new VEX robot kits. Prior to the arrival of the new robot kits, the NAHS robotics program would have upwards of 25 students sharing one robot.

The extra robot kits enabled a much greater hands-on STEM learning experience for the 60+ students from the classroom and the additional students participating in the after-school program.

As a result, NAHS qualified one team for 2015’s VEX Worlds Championship in Louisville.

NAHS’s first appearance at the world championship was a huge success from which they could proudly boast they had beaten half of the 450 teams from around the world.

The investment from the community continued to pay off as in 2016, two teams advanced to Worlds.

NAHS Team 8568A won the skills award for the entire Southern New England region, and at Worlds placed 6th in programming skills.

Team 8568B placed 10th in their division at Worlds. VEX Worlds grew to 500 teams in 2016.
The students met and competed with teams across the globe and learned sportsmanship in addition to technical skills.

In 2017, after competing at five tournaments, Team 8568F earned a berth to Worlds with an exciting “come from behind” victory in the Skills Challenges at Regionals in Worcester on March 4th and 5th.

In their last chance to qualify, the team bested their previous score by 33 percent to come in Second in the Region for Skills.

This qualified the team to continue the legacy of North Andover High School for the third consecutive year.

Now a deadline looms.

Expected costs for the trip exceed $10,000 and include the cost of a school chaperone, tournament entry fee, signage, team travel, hotel accommodations, and meals.

With the budget for school operating expenses already stretched thin, the team is appealing to the community seeking donations to help fund this opportunity of a lifetime.

Last year, organizations which include GE, Kronos, Akamai, UniFirst Corporation, Pentucket Bank, Staples, North Andover Merchants Association, Watts Water Technology and others combined to defray more than $9,000 in expenses

Donations can be made payable to “North Andover High School”, with “robotics program” written in the memo field and mailed to:Mike Motherway, Technology/Engineering TeacherNorth Andover High School at 430 Osgood St., North Andover, MA 01845. Tax ID 046-001-245.

For donations in excess of $1,000, the team showcase a name or company logo on signage and/or team shirts.

However, we will need to have your name/logo and donation commitment no later than April 1 to allow for production.

Courtesy photo of the North Andover robots team.