Robotics

VEX V5 Tournaments at Knox Grammar School

Dates: Sunday 13 October and Sunday 20 October

Over the past two Sundays, our Pymble Robotics teams attended two VEX Tournaments hosted at Knox Grammar School. Students in Years 7 and 8 have been working hard for months, putting in many extra hours to plan strategies, build their robots, program both autonomous and driver-controlled code, and practice driving their bots.

Team 65100K ‘Beluga’ (Penny Xing (Year 7), Jing Yuan Liu (Year 7), Athena Wu (Year 7), Arabella Hoang (Year 7) and Vivian Tian (Year 7)) attended the competition on Sunday 13 October. Students from this team handled the excitement and pressure of competition with determination and poise. Mentors were particularly impressed by their teamwork, and recognising and fixing errors, improving their performance. A highlight of the day happened during robot inspections, when some missing plates led the team to work quickly and creatively together to make replacement parts with equipment kindly loaned to them.

Six Pymble Robotics teams attended the VEX Tournament on Sunday 20 October:

65100A (Akshara Bhattacharya (Year 8), Shreya Mahendra (Year 8), Kayla Ma (Year 8))

65100B (Nicole Fan (Year 8), Alexa Wu (Year 8), Chloe Shao (Year 8), Bella Yang (Year 8))

65100G (Jessica Chen (Year 7), Aliya Singh (Year 7), Ula Cheng (Year 7), Hailey Judd (Year 7), Victoria Vaganov (Year 7), Summer Makan (Year 7))

65100M (Calla Zhu (Year 8), Jane Zhang (Year 8), Ava Christofides (Year 8), Zoe An (Year 7), Savenya Maganaarachchi (Year 8)

65100N (Lily Dao (Year 7), Ellie Lau (Year 7), Jessica Franklin (Year 7), Bella Xu (Year 7), Ella Su (Year 7), Esha Marwah (Year 7), Rose Bennett (Year 7))

65100R (Kathy Wang (Year 8), Lily Xing (Year 8), Joyce Li (Year 8), Erica Kwok (Year 8)).

All teams worked diligently and professionally throughout the day to optimise their robot performance and achieve their best. This involved repairing robots, strategising with other allied teams, and turning up promptly to a packed competition schedule. All teams at the event made it through to the quarter and semi-finals. In one match, three out of four teams versing each other were from Pymble Ladies’ College! Team 65100R won the Innovate Award presented at the competition after impressing the judges with design and implementation of their robot. Judges and organisers remarked that this event had the most encouraging and respectful atmospheres of the tournaments they had attended so far. Well done to Pymble students for contributing to the spirit of the competition! A huge thanks to parents for their ongoing support, transporting teams and robots to competitions – we couldn’t do it without you!

FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Regional Tournament at Abbotsleigh

Date: Monday 14 October

On Monday 14 October, six Pymble teams from Years 5 and 6 had the opportunity to compete in a regional FLL competition hosted at Abbotsleigh:

Team 1992 Hungry Pandas (Sooin Lee (Year 5), Ivanka Jia (Year 5), Chloe Yi (Year 6), Isabella Zhang)

Team 1993 Robotic Sharks (Carrington Shelmerdine (Year 6), Imogen Martin (Year 6), Safina Burgess (year 6), Candice Li (Year 5), Isabella Wang (Year 5) and Joanna Li (Year 5))

Team 1994 Cosmic Tacos (Aarna Ashwin (Year 6), Salma Hassan (Year 6), Sarah Tew (Year 6), Lexi Wu (Year 6), Meera Goluhan (Year 6), Sissi Ko (Year 6))

Team 1989 Dihydrogen Monoxide (Belle Geng-Yang (Year 5), Hannah Kim (Year 5), Cleo Zhu (Year 5), Felicia Huang (Year 5), Macy Feng (Year 6), Isla Huang (Year 6), Lakshi Rajeev (Year 6))

Team 1990 Vaquitas are Da Best (Elaine Liu (Year 5), Lola Yang (Year 5), Tiana Zhang (Year 5), Uya Cheng (Year 5), Isla Lu (Year 5), Dora Chen (Year 5), Genevieve Chiu (Year 5))

Team 1991 The Tortilla Turtles (Lily Jiao (Year 6), Rosie Han (Year 6), Renee Kong (Year 6), Anna Xu (Year 6), Michelle Ng (Year 6), Melanni Baker (Year 6), Zoey Wen (Year 6).

Students demonstrated their autonomous programming skills in the two-and-a-half-minute robot game and presented their robot design, strategy, code, and innovation project in the judges’ interview. A term’s worth of work resulted in three teams receiving awards. Team 1992 Hungry Pandas received the Peer Award as voted by other teams at the competition, Team 1993 Robotic Sharks received the Core Values Award for their positive attitude and support of both fellow teammates and other teams from around the region, and Team 1994 Cosmic Tacos received the Innovation Project Award for their seabed traversal robot that improves ocean acidification with the use of eelgrass. One of our mentors, Jet Napton, also received the Mentor Award, voted by students. Two Pymble teams progressed to the Nationals event on Saturday 30 November: 1993 Robotic Sharks and 1994 Cosmic Tacos –and are now making their preparations to compete. Only four teams in total secured a spot at the Nationals event – a remarkable achievement for our two Pymble teams!

VEX IQ Tournament at Darkinjung Barker

Date: Monday 21 October

On Monday 21 October, three Pymble teams competed at the invitational Darkinjung Competition for VEXIQ:

6510B (Diya Dhanpal (Year 6), Mia Farthing (Year 5), Aisha Younus (Year 5))

6510D (Alice Na (Year 5), Rebecca Cooke (Year 5), Genevieve Wong (Year 5), Hayley Du (Year 5))

6510J (Emma Deere (Year 5), Emily Horniak (Year 5), Sarah Lu (Year 5), Lucy Ma (Year 5), Alicia Miao (Year 5), Jessica Xu (Year 5))

The day was full of boundless energy and joy with remarkable performances seen from all the teams present. Our Pymble students advanced to the final qualifications, achieving personal bests in the alliance matches, demonstrating their thoughtful game strategy and effective communication skills. In particular, Team 6510B had a very successful day, earning three titles: Judges Award, Skills Champion and Teamwork Champion Award allowing them to qualify for States.

VEX IQ Tournament at Pymble Ladies’ College

Date: Sunday 27 October

Pymble Ladies’ College recently hosted a VEX IQ tournament, featuring 16 teams, including five from Pymble:

Team 6510C (Olivia Chen (Year 6), Florence Cheng (Year 6), Ashleigh Yip (Year 6), Ellie Zhang (Year 5))

Team 6510E (Pipi Chen (Year 5), Julie Kang (Year 5), Caroline Liu (Year 5), Audrey Chen (Year 5), Dorothy Ban (Year 5))

Team 6510G (Evie Cho (Year 5), Tia Gao (Year 6), Anaiya Patel (Year 5), Alexandra Qiu Year 6))

Team 6510H (Zoey Chen (Year 6), Zoe Chong (Year 6), Riley Kwok (Year 6), Chloe Morrison (Year 6))

Team 6510V (Lydia Chen (Year 6), Emma Fu (Year 6), Charlotte Wu (Year 6), Emma Popli (Year 6)).

The event was filled with energy and excitement as students implemented strategies learned from previous competitions.

A special shout-out goes to our amazing Pymble Robotics team, whose organisation made this event run smoothly. We are incredibly grateful to all volunteers, especially our enthusiastic Year 6 students—Lily Zhang, Chelsea Wang, and Adeline Wu—who eagerly stepped up to assist.

Well done to all Pymble teams that participated! This tournament was a fantastic way to conclude the season, allowing every team the opportunity to compete. Family and friends were able to cheer on their teams, and mentors enjoyed a great view of all the action, capturing memorable moments in photos and videos.

We are thrilled with the progress shown by all participants. Those who did not qualify for the State Championship expressed pride in their accomplishments, embodying the spirit of Team Pymble Pride as they look forward to future challenges.

We are Pymble proud of all our Robotics students!