The Arkansas Tech University robotics team recently attended the Texas VEX U Tournament in Houston on Friday, Feb. 23, and Saturday, Feb. 24, where they earned the distinctions of #1 ranked college robotics team in the nation and #2 in the world, the university announced.
“To be so highly ranked this late in the season is phenomenal for us,” said Jacob Weidenfeller, ATU instructor of electrical engineering, lab director and advisor for the ATU VEX U robotics team. “There was another VEX U tournament at Purdue this weekend with many of the most highly-regarded VEX U teams in attendance. There was one team at the event that came close to knocking us into the No. 3 spot, but we are still currently locked at No. 2. Our team plans to run more skills runs at our state event in Tucker Coliseum in March to see if we can go even higher.”
ATU’s ranking came as a result of its skill challenge score compared to other teams attempting the same challenge. Despite finishing as a runner-up in the head-to-head championship match to Texas A&M University, the team’s performance in the skill challenge meant that it earned the tournament’s top overall prize, the excellence award.
“We were so close to getting the triple crown of excellence, tournament champions and skills challenge champions, but we are still very happy,” said Weidenfeller.
The performance of the ATU team qualifies it to return for the next tournament, the VEX U World Championship, to be held in April where last year’s ATU robotics team reached the quarter-finals and finished 16th in the world.
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