ECTC hosts ‘March of the Robots’ VEX Robotics Competition
Published on Mar 3, 2025
Elizabethtown Community and Technical College’s Advanced Manufacturing Accelerator Project rang in the new month Saturday with March of the Robots — a scrimmage VEX V5 Robotics Competition — supporting area middle and high school students’ interests in engineering, design and robotics.
Thirteen teams from eight area schools participated. The two-team alliance of East Hardin Middle School and LaRue Baptist Academy took top honors at the competition.
“We are excited about the level of interest in robotics in our region and very proud to provide a venue for those middle and high school students to pursue their interests,” AMAP Director Eileen Worthington said, noting that five of the participating schools benefitted from coaches training provided by AMAP and ECTC last summer.
The name of the 2024-25 VEX Robotics Competition game is High Stakes. It is played on a 12-foot-by-12-foot field. Two alliances, composed of two teams each, compete in matches. Matches start with a 15-second autonomous period, meaning the robots only rely on pre-programmed action with no intervention from a driver. That is followed by a driver-controlled period of a minute and 45 seconds.
The primary way alliances (one red, one blue) score points is by picking up rings spread across the field and placing them onto 10 stakes. Five stakes are on mobile goals, four are stationary stakes on the field’s walls. The “high stake” is atop a ladder at center field and has space for just one ring. Points also are scored by completing specific tasks during the autonomous period. Points can be added or subtracted by moving the mobile goals into the field’s corners. Finally, at the end of the match, the higher a robot climbs the ladder, the more points scored.
“This is so much more than pick-and-place. The game manual is 135 pages, and the game involves a lot of strategic planning and critical thinking under pressure.” said ECTC Professor Marty Sutherland, who advises the ECTC Robotics Team and was on hand for the competition. “Students are tapping into technical skills as well as soft skills like teamwork, communication and time management.”
AMAP was established at ECTC through a $1.9 million U.S. Department of Education Rural Postsecondary Economic Development grant. The project will promote advanced manufacturing career pathways and create new opportunities for career exploration and preparation in a seven-county area. The project’s primary objective is to develop a pipeline of talent from middle school to high school, to ECTC, to internships and to employment in advanced manufacturing.
For information on AMAP and new opportunities for students and coaches, including upcoming summer robotics programs, visit ectc.us/amap.
