'Unbelievable' Stramore NS mix it with the best at VEX Robotics World Championship

The Stramore National School students with a flavour of Texas arriving at the VEX Robotics World Championship

placeholder image — The Stramore National School students with a flavour of Texas arriving at the VEX Robotics World Championship

The VEX Robotics World Championship, which took place in Dallas, Texas, attracted thousands of entrants from all over the world and the representation from Stramore National School at Glendowan, performed wonderfully to seal a top 100 finish

Stramore National School students did themselves proud as they represented Ireland at The VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas, Texas.

The students from the Glendowan school qualified for the VEX Robotics Competition after winning the Irish competition in March and came in 17th place, getting to the play-off round where teams with best points get move onto the final, in the United States. In the end, Stramore National School finished in ninth place in their group of 76.

In all, there were 10 divisions, each comprising 70-plus teams, meaning a top 100 finish overall for Stramore National School. The Robotics Education and Competition Foundation manages the VEX Robotics Competition, which thousands of schools participate in around the world each year.

The Stramore National School VEX Robotics Competition team is made up of a team of 12-year-olds - Edward Callaghan, Máire Callaghan, Cormac Gallagher, Charlie Gildea and Joseph McDermott.

To prepare for the tournament, the group led by M. Pól Ó Fearraigh and Francie Friel worked together to design, build, and programme a robot that could quickly and efficiently solve specific challenges. Each week, the students applied what they’ve learned about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in the classroom to build these semi-autonomous machines.

Congratulations were passed on from ATU Donegal’s Department of Computing.

“Stramore National School, a small rural school in Donegal, with under 100 pupils, has just qualified for the playoff stages of the VEX world finals in Texas,” they posted. “Fantastic achievement, over 800 schools in the world finals and little old Stramore into the playoff finals, unbelievable.”

VEX North-West said: “An outstanding achievement. Well done to the team, teachers, parents and mentors.”