The Mountaineer Robotics team competed at the largest robotics competition in the world! The team of nine Ephrata High School students - Nate Buehler, Desiree Buitrago, Laurent Duvert, Jakob Jankowski, Jason Keiser, Nova Makhammatjonova, Micah Neff, Paige Reddig, and Corbin Wise – will be competing in the VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas, Texas, from April 25- 27.
Think March Madness meets robotics. The EHS team has competed in many local and regional bracketed robotics competitions to ultimately be ranked 9th in Pennsylvania and 300th in the world, which earned them the opportunity to compete at the world championships with 800 other school teams.
EHS students began in January by building their robot from scratch and programming it to successfully complete the 2023 competition challenge, “Spin Up.” The challenge resembles frisbee golf, as students control the robot to pick up frisbees and launch them into a net. Each student served in a different role during this process, from being the primary engineer and lead driver to overseeing the building, coding, strategy, and competition rules.
The Mountaineer Robotics team has been an established club at EHS since 2016. The program has reached the state level of competition numerous times, but this team is the first one to earn a place in the world competition. It is a Signature Program of the Ephrata Area Education Foundation, who provides the funding for the robotics materials, competition fees, and the upcoming trip to Texas.