VEX Robotics Team Shines in High Stakes Competition

On Wednesday, January 15th, the Dominican College VEX Robotics team competed in the VEX V5 High Stakes competition at ATU Galway. This marks the second year the school has participated in the VEX V5 competition, where students design, build, and code robots to take on a new challenge each year. This year's game involved maneuvering plastic ring doughnuts onto stakes.

The team began their preparations in September, refining their robot design through a practice event, or Scrimmage, held in ATU last November. With improvements made, they were ready for the main event.

Each school competed in seven qualifier matches, with two robots from different teams forming alliances to face another pair in a red vs blue setup. After all 26 qualifier matches, Dominican College emerged in the top position.

This achievement allowed them to choose St. Colman’s, Claremorris, as their partner for the finals. Dominican College performed exceptionally well, securing victories in both the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. Unfortunately, they were narrowly defeated in the final by a strong alliance led by a school from Kildare.

The day ended on a high note as Dominican College received the Robot Skills Champion award for driver Cristina Prieto and the prestigious Excellence Award for the best overall team.

Congratulations to all team members, including driver Cristina Prieto, coder Leah Curran, builders Lara Curran and Erinlee Diviney, and reporter Aoibheann Reid, whose Engineering Report was a key part of the judging process.

The team now looks forward to competing in the National Final in Cork this February.