By Riley McCoy
For The Register-Herald
Beckley — The robotics team at West Virginia University Institute of Technology has emerged as one of the top collegiate teams in the world this season, earning a place at the upcoming VEX World Championship in April.
WVU Tech’s robotics team swept three top awards in Fairmont this March and climbed to No. 14 worldwide.
Competing as WVUTE1, the team won the Excellence Award, Tournament Champion Award and Skills Award at the March 7 West Virginia VURC Qualifier at Fairmont State University’s Falcon Center.
The event, part of the VEX U Robotics Competition, drew college teams from across the region and helped push WVU Tech to No. 14 in the world rankings. The team also secured a place at the VEX World Championship later this April.
Team leader Alexander Franck, a junior mechanical engineering major from South Charleston and founder of the robotics club, said he was proud of the team’s performance.
“Winning the top three awards — the triple crown — that’s a very difficult task,” Franck said.
Franck founded the robotics club during his freshman year at WVU Tech after competing in VEX Robotics in high school and decided to continue at the collegiate level.
“There aren’t as many restrictions in college as there are in high school,” Franck said. “You get to do a lot more stuff, like 3D print parts. I like the university competition a lot more.”
Franck said the Fairmont result reflected steady progress over the course of the season. WVU Tech opened its competition schedule on campus in February, but he said the team had not fully hit its stride.
“We were close to being ready then, but we were not exactly where we wanted to be,” Franck said. “The competition at Virginia Tech was a week later. That made all the difference.”
He said that leap occurred in Fairmont, where WVU Tech handled a deeper field and left with the event’s top honors. The team posted a 192-point score in the skills event — a mark that placed it 11th globally in skills and fourth among U.S. teams after Fairmont.
“At Fairmont, we played against Rochester Institute of Technology and they’re really, really good,” Franck said. “We’ve beaten a lot of big schools like Virginia Tech and Ohio State.”
Now, the team turns toward the VEX World Championship, where the top 100 teams qualify to compete. Franck said WVU Tech expects to keep climbing as the season reaches its biggest stage.
“We’re expecting to rank a lot higher during the World Championships,” Franck said. “There’s a lot of commitment to the team, which is nice.”
He said the team’s larger roster has helped strengthen its performance this season and believes that growth will continue.
“I think we’re going to be very successful at the World Championship,” Franck said. “But next year, we’re going to be even better than this year, and we’ll be the team to beat.”
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