NDP ROBOTICS KICKS OFF VEX SEASON

Share this article with a friend.

August 6, 2024

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here. 

Six teams from Notre Dame Prep's VEX Robotics Competition contingent travel to Monroe, Michigan, for the ninth annual kickoff competition.

The first VEX Robotics Competition event of the new season was held last Saturday during the annual Monroe County Fair at the county fairgrounds. Twenty-seven high school and middle school teams, mostly from Michigan, participated, but the event also fielded competitors from Florida and Indiana. Event organizers said that more than 80% of the teams attending the Monroe County Fair event typically go on to compete in their respective state championships.

This year, six teams from Notre Dame Prep made the trip to Monroe, including students heading to the 7th through 12th grades when school opens in a couple of weeks.

According to Jerry Palardy, who mentors NDP's VRC participation, the game for this season is called "High Stakes," and NDP students got a chance to try out robots they've been working on all summer.

"It really is a fun event held in a big tent in the middle of the county Fair," he said. It was the first full robotics competition for our seventh-grade team, 3333A and to everyone's delight, they finished qualifications ranked third and made it to the semifinals."

Team 3333X took home the Design Award, which qualifies them for the Michigan State Championship next February, and team 3333W won the Innovate Award for their unique hyper-speed hexagon drivetrain.

"Team 3333W welcomed new student Alex Chung, a rising sophomore, to their team a few days before this event, and although this was his first event with the team, he is not new to VEX," said Palardy. "His family recently moved to Michigan after living in China for five years, where he participated in VEX and VEX IQ."

Palardy expects that more VEX teams will be forming after school starts.

 

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org

About Notre Dame Preparatory School
"At Notre Dame Prep, we inspire our students to become the best versions of themselves. We challenge them through an experience of academic excellence, focused on active, project-based learning. We invite them to explore a world of opportunities beyond the classroom. We guide them as they grow in spirituality within a community strong in its Catholic and Marist identity."

Notre Dame Preparatory School is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. Notre Dame Preparatory School's upper school enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame Prep's middle and lower schools enroll students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. All three schools are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDP is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the National Association of Independent Schools. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School, visit the school’s home page at www.ndprep.org.