Robotics competition brings teams from across the Midwest to Rockford in the name of sport and science

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Some of the Midwest’s most talented young technological minds will showcase their skills this weekend in a robotics competition that combines sport with science and technology.

The Rock River Robotics Off-season Competition will bring 30 teams from five states to Rock Valley College on Saturday.

“I love seeing all the teams from all over the Midwest,” said Jordyn Roscoe, a 16-year-old junior at Winnebago High School who competes with Winnovation.

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Winnovation is one of four host teams, along with Rockford Robotics, the Belvidere-based Flaming Monkeys and Stateline Robotics from Hononegah High School. This annual competition, now in its 11th year, gives the teams a rare chance to compete in front of a home crowd.

“This is a huge competition for us,” Roscoe said. “It means a lot because all of our competitions are out in Chicago, Peoria or completely out of state.”

This off-season event is derived from the international FIRST Robotics Competition. Students must design, build, program and operate the robots.

The game changes every year. Last year, students had to design robots to pick up inflatable balls and launch them into a bucket before climbing a hangar at the end. This year’s game, called Charged Up, puts teams in alliances to collect cubes and traffic cones, place them on a grid and then balance on a charge station.

Each team builds their roughly $4,000 robot to handle the task slightly differently.

“You can basically build anything your heart desires, as long as you know what to do and as long as you have either the budget or the access to materials,” said Andrew Cruz, a 16-year-old junior at Belvidere North High School who competes with the Flaming Monkeys.

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Cruz, who is considering a career as a mechanical engineer, said this weekend’s off-season competition has a more relaxed pace than the height of competition during the school year.

“It certainly allows us to socialize with each other and get more ideas off each other and find out more ideas about how we did things,” Cruz said. “We also have a chance to practice and learn and experiment in the time we didn’t have initially.”

It’s also a chance for teams to test their incoming rookies and find out who will be the best drivers.

Andrew Dierks, a 17-year-old senior at Winnebago, will be a base driver this weekend, although that’s not his normal role. Incoming Pecatonica High School freshman Troy Hospelhorn will get behind the controls, too. Separate drivers control the auxiliary functions such as extending the arm that places cones on the grid.

“That is our chance to see if our rookies are going to be good at driving,” Dierks said.

But, he said this event provides a lot of support for new competitors.

“It’s such a great community to be in,” Dierks said of robotics. “There’s so much positivity.”

For the seventh-straight year, R2OC is awarding scholarships to juniors and seniors, including $500 for one student, $1,000 for three students and $1,500 for one student. The nonprofit offseason event will also provide up to $5,000 in grants for robotics programs based in Boone, Stephenson and Winnebago counties.

Karen Hill, co-chairperson of the R2OC co-chair and lead mentor for Winnovation, said the skills students learn in robotics helps them get a step up in college and can make them an asset to future employers.

“Kids are getting hands on opportunities here,” she said. “If they want to learn how to run mills and lathes, we have a table-top CNC. They can learn how to program. … We have others who are using CAD and designing the parts.”

“Universities want them because they have that hands-on experience.”

What to know if you go

What: Rock River Robotics Off-Season Competition

Where: Rock Valley College, 3301 N. Mulford Road, Rockford

When: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 22

More info: r2oc.org

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas