Haslett robotics students return to world stage

HASLETT – One might say Haslett's robotics students are programmed to win.

And why not? Several of them are set to compete on the world stage — some as defending champs.

Two of the Haslett Robotics Club's four teams — the Raptors and the Dragons — are headed to the 2015 VEX Robotics World Championship, set for April 15-18 in Louisville, Ky. The Raptors, a group of seniors and juniors who won the world title last year, are making their fifth straight trip to the competition.

"These kids have been with the club since they were 8 or 9 and they work together as a great team, club President Steve Sneed said. "They're very professional, they're very team-oriented and they're great budding engineers.

This is the first trip for the Dragons, a team of freshmen who got into robotics as middle schoolers. A third group, the Vortex, joined the Raptors at the competition last year in Anaheim, Calif.

A middle school team, the Minotaurs, is in its first season.

Haslett High's Viking Room was cramped and active Friday as all four teams fine-tuned their game, with the tourney-bound teams extra-focused.

"We're ready to go back and defend our title," said 17-year-old Nik Buchholz of the Raptors, and whose father, Claus, coaches the Raptors and Vortex.

As world tourney newcomers, the Dragons are pumped.

"This is really exciting," freshman Matthew Gingras said. "We really made a great effort and we worked well as a team this year, and I'm really looking forward to this."

Kim Schramm, a retired General Motors engineer who also coaches the Raptors, said she's enjoyed the students' development.

They've grown in so many ways," she said. "Confidence, professionalism, the way they greet their opponents and alliance partners at matches, they're shaking each others' hands, wishing each other well."

A third coach, Mike Scott, works with the Dragons and Minotaurs.

The world tournament will attract more than 800 teams and 15,000 students from more than 25 countries, according to VEX Robotics Inc., the Greenville, Texas, firm sponsoring the event.

All four Haslett teams competed in this year's state championship, held Feb. 22 at Michigan State University. Teams had tasks of varying point values involving cubes and cylinders. The students program the robots, which use their sensors to grab, move and place objects.

The Raptors and Dragons both made it to the finals along with different pairs of "allies" from other Michigan schools, said Claus Buchholz, a software engineer.

The two Haslett teams then "duked it out" for the top honor, he said.

That went to the Raptors' group, but the Dragons as finalists also got an invitation to Louisville.

"It's great," Buchholz said, " and it's especially good that we're taking a younger team to their first time at the worlds."

The Raptors also won the state competition's Excellence Award and the Robot Skills Award. The Vortex snared the Judges Award.

Members of the Raptors are Nik Buchholz, Hannah Kempel, Connor Rowley, Matthew Watson and Austin Scheerer. The Dragons are Garrick Rowley, Matthew Gingras, Jae Han, McKenna Arkell, Susanna Henry, Collin Membiela and Cian Scott.

The Haslett Robotics Club also has Legos teams for younger children, Claus Buchholz said.

DeWitt students also vying for world title

DeWitt High School's robotics team, which placed fifth in last year's VEX Robotics World Championship, also will be making the trip to Louisville in April. The team took the Create Award at the Feb. 22 state competition at Michigan State University.

Rob Bush, who teaches robotics and engineering at the high school, has run the Robotics Club for four years.