Continuing their perfect streak since inception, the Tampa Prep Robotics team is going to states for the ninth time since the club was founded.

   Every year the robotics team competes in the international VEX Robotics Competition. This competition consists of a specific challenge posed to the teams that they have to get a robot to accomplish. This year it consists of having the team’s robot move a ball through a hoop.

  “Hoops are located in 9 positions in the field,” said K.K. Quah, the robotics team’s faculty advisor, “The idea is to pick up a six inch ball of your team’s color and score it. Like basketball with robots.”

Tampa Preps’ robotics team has the highest autonomous skills score, meaning their robot’s ability to navigate the course without anyone guiding it, in the state of Florida, with a score of 88/120. This puts them in a great position to succeed at States.

  “We have been making great progress on the autonomous for the past couple of weeks,” said junior member of the Robotics team, Ryan Kelly.

   The team is hoping to succeed at states and make it to the world competition for what could be their third time. But mostly, the team is excited to see all of their efforts pay off. They have met every day after school and worked through summer and winter break to make it this far.

      “Robotics team members are the hardest working club at Tampa Prep,” said Quah, “They have spent countless hours just modifying their robots.”