Over 500 students from 17 primary schools from the midwest region attended the regional final recently, which took place on the Dell Limerick campus in Raheen.
Award recipients
On the day, five schools took home awards for teamwork, excellence, design, skills and the judges pick.
Barryroe National School in Co Cork and Thomond Primary School in Co Limerick both won the Teamwork Champion Award, with Barryroe also winning the Excellence Award.
Limerick’s Nicker National School were presented with the Judges' Award, while the Gaelic Gladiators team from Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, won both the Design Award and the Robot Skills Champion awards.
The regional competition winners will participate in the national finals of the Dell VEX Robotics Competition on 22 and 23 February at Munster Technological University in Cork.
Benefits of the competition
The robotics challenge starts in the classroom each year, when primary school children work with their teacher from September to January to design, build and program a robot.
Teams from Dell and Mary Immaculate College (MIC) volunteer their time to support the children and teachers as they prepare for the competition and also organise practice sessions. Students learn many technical skills like robotics, engineering, design, programming and coding.
Classes can also opt to compete in a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) project, the theme of which this year was "Mathematics in Nature".
The students record and submit a video on their STEM projects to a panel of industry and education experts.
Since its introduction in 2014, the Dell VEX Robotics Competition has expanded nationwide with a growing number of young people inspired to engage in STEM at the earliest opportunity.
Lauren Duggan and John Duggan of Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan, Nenagh, at the Vex midwest regional final at Dell Technologies in Raheen. \ Brian Arthur
Sean O’Reilly, EMEA vice president of logistics and Limerick site leader for Dell Technologies, commented on the competition: “STEM learning is central to inspiring the next generation of developers and engineers whose skills will help shape our future as an innovation island. It is a fun way for us to engage young people in technology and foster their creativity. Well done to all the students and teachers who put on a powerful demonstration of their problem solving and computational skills during the recent regional final at our campus in Limerick.”
The teams also fundraise for robot parts, building skills and knowledge in areas such as teamwork, marketing and financial planning.
This year the programme encouraged the students to look more closely at the world around them through the Mathematics in Nature STEM project, leading students to explore applications including bees (and the hexagonal shapes of hives and honeycomb), the Fibonacci sequence in nature, fingerprints, and one team investigated how Pythagoras’ Theorem helped them access space in their attic.
Patricia O’Sullivan, enterprise and community engagement manager at MIC, congratulated all the schools involved, saying: “We are so proud of all the schools here today. We began working with all these teachers and children from schools around the Mid-West Region in September 2022. It is great to see the results of all their hard work.”
To find out more about the Dell VEX Robotics Competition or to register for next year’s programme visit https://stemcraft.mic.ul.ie/
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Over 500 students from 17 primary schools from the midwest region attended the regional final recently, which took place on the Dell Limerick campus in Raheen.
Award recipients
On the day, five schools took home awards for teamwork, excellence, design, skills and the judges pick.
Barryroe National School in Co Cork and Thomond Primary School in Co Limerick both won the Teamwork Champion Award, with Barryroe also winning the Excellence Award.
Limerick’s Nicker National School were presented with the Judges' Award, while the Gaelic Gladiators team from Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, won both the Design Award and the Robot Skills Champion awards.
The regional competition winners will participate in the national finals of the Dell VEX Robotics Competition on 22 and 23 February at Munster Technological University in Cork.
Benefits of the competition
The robotics challenge starts in the classroom each year, when primary school children work with their teacher from September to January to design, build and program a robot.
Teams from Dell and Mary Immaculate College (MIC) volunteer their time to support the children and teachers as they prepare for the competition and also organise practice sessions. Students learn many technical skills like robotics, engineering, design, programming and coding.
Classes can also opt to compete in a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) project, the theme of which this year was "Mathematics in Nature".
The students record and submit a video on their STEM projects to a panel of industry and education experts.
Since its introduction in 2014, the Dell VEX Robotics Competition has expanded nationwide with a growing number of young people inspired to engage in STEM at the earliest opportunity.
Lauren Duggan and John Duggan of Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan, Nenagh, at the Vex midwest regional final at Dell Technologies in Raheen. \ Brian Arthur
Sean O’Reilly, EMEA vice president of logistics and Limerick site leader for Dell Technologies, commented on the competition: “STEM learning is central to inspiring the next generation of developers and engineers whose skills will help shape our future as an innovation island. It is a fun way for us to engage young people in technology and foster their creativity. Well done to all the students and teachers who put on a powerful demonstration of their problem solving and computational skills during the recent regional final at our campus in Limerick.”
The teams also fundraise for robot parts, building skills and knowledge in areas such as teamwork, marketing and financial planning.
This year the programme encouraged the students to look more closely at the world around them through the Mathematics in Nature STEM project, leading students to explore applications including bees (and the hexagonal shapes of hives and honeycomb), the Fibonacci sequence in nature, fingerprints, and one team investigated how Pythagoras’ Theorem helped them access space in their attic.
Patricia O’Sullivan, enterprise and community engagement manager at MIC, congratulated all the schools involved, saying: “We are so proud of all the schools here today. We began working with all these teachers and children from schools around the Mid-West Region in September 2022. It is great to see the results of all their hard work.”
To find out more about the Dell VEX Robotics Competition or to register for next year’s programme visit https://stemcraft.mic.ul.ie/
Read more
SuperValu and GIY Launch “Let’s Grow” initiative for primary schools
Agri Aware’s farm walk and talk events return for 2023
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