OCS Robotics is hosting the Signature Event at the Highlands Sports Complex from January 31st to February 3rd. Our Wheeling Park Robotics team is competing on the 2nd and 3rd of February. 64 middle school teams and 73 teams from all across the nation are coming to Wheeling to compete. There are only 24 signature events in the world, so they are very thankful to be able to host one here.

The Signature Event is very important in VEX robotics. “The Signature Event is an event that will qualify teams straight to the worlds competition in Dallas, Texas,” said Dr. Shepherd. “We will be sending 6 teams total. It is a pretty exclusive “club”, there are only 24 of these in the whole world and we got to host 2 of them. It’s a great opportunity for local students to get a worlds-like experience.”

Our robotics teams are working very hard to prepare for the event. “We need to fix our coding and our flywheel,” said Ella Wheeler on team 62629K. “We also need to make a climbing mechanism.” “We are confident in shooting but we need to work on driving and coding.”

Many teams have similar things to work on “We are working on the robot, coding, and fixing some minor issues with it.” says Mason Shores on team 62629P. “We are confident in building and defense but we definitely need to work on our code.”

“We really need coding done right now, we are preparing multiple codes for this competition,” said Josh Hess on 62629Y. “[We are confident in] our driving ability to overcome most of the game and play the game very well. We do need to work on our code.”

Thank you to our CTE programs for helping the robotics program “Gear up for Gateway.” A special thanks to Eagle Precision for making the awards and  Park Inc. and Studio 235 for making the “signs and swag,” as Emerson Kosol best described it.