“We are one of the teams to beat!”

Up next for the Iron Chargers is the State Championship in St. Cloud on January 29-30. If all goes well and as planned, the team will be heading to the Worlds Competition again in April! Let’s hope for the best!

Rewinding a bit, the Grygla Robotics team is sitting where they are because of a couple recent and successful competitions. On January 9th, the team competed in the Northwest Minnesota VEX Robotics Tournament at Northland Community & Technical College in Thief River Falls. Kvasager said it was a very good competition and the teams played against the most competitive robots so far this year. 40 teams were present for the event and competed in a challenge called “Nothing but Net”, which consisted of shooting 4” foam balls into high and low goals. The task changes every year, but the stage is always the same – a 12x12 arena where robots designed, engineered and manufactured by students compete against each other.

That day, team 4149C was named Tournament Champions, Programming Skills Champions, Robot Skills Champions and also received the Excellence Award. The younger team, 4149G, was named tournament finalists and also received the Design Award. Out of the 40 teams there that day, the C team was ranked #1 and the G team was ranked #2! This was the team’s last regular tournament of the year.

Last Saturday, the 16th, Grygla School hosted the first ever Grygla Robotics Skills Event, which can safely be called another SUCCESS! Seven towns and fourteen robots were in the gym that day and team 4149C shattered their own personal best record, which they were already #1 in the state! They scored 248 points in “driver skills”, which places them 56th in the world as of right now. (You read that right – 56th IN THE WORLD!) They scored 223 points in “programming skills”, which moves them back up to 31st in the world for programming. (They were 25th early in the season, but had since been surpassed by teams from other states and fell to 70th.)

For a sense of scale, there are over 10,000 VEX high school teams in the world.

The younger team, 4149G, is currently 7th in the state in programming with a score of 91 and 4th in the state in driver skills with a score of 95. Very good for any team, let alone a first year team!

Team 4149C, the older team, is made up of: Makayla Vad, Trystan Jelle, Dustin Nelson and Kelly Dougherty. Team 4149G, the younger team, is made up of: Lucian Tinnes, Hudson McMillin, Chris Latrell, Julianne Nordby, Jake Ahlbeck and Elise Monson.

Youth robotics competitions have exploded in recent years. There are now more high school robotics teams in Minnesota than hockey teams at 157, which is largely due to industry intervention.

The robotics team was initially introduced a few years ago when Andrew Dahlen, an Electronics Technology Instructor at NCTC, held meetings to encourage North West MN students to participate in VEX Robotics events. He was the one that secured initial start up funding and equipped each school with the necessary tools to move forward and begin their journey. Dahlen has led the Northland Robotics team to the World Championships and also works with youth at annual summer RoboStorm camps to create awareness around robotics and STEM related careers and fields of study.

“We have a lot of manufacturing companies in our local area that are just desperate for technical talent,” said Dahlen. “It’s amazing how much of the Minnesota economy is made up of manufacturing companies. They’re interviewing the teams, they’re talking to them, they’re looking at their engineering notebooks that describe their design process, their ideas, their innovation, their meeting notes, the whole works,” added Dahlen.

As for the Grygla School, science teacher Isaac Kvasager was on board from the beginning with leading Grygla’s team as the advisor. As a very involved and hands on advisor, he was asked to explain his role with the team. He replied, “I don’t do much in terms of building/programming for the team. As the coach I worry more about “scouting” and learning about what is possible with the game each year. It is the students’ job to design, build and program the robots. The older team has been almost 100% independent this year. They have 3 years of experience so they know what needs to be done. They will ask me for advice when it comes to certain designs or strategies, but in the end it is up to them to do it. The younger team is all new students this year. I have had to spend more time with them showing them the fundamentals of how all of the different VEX components work together to make a functioning robot, but again, it is still up to them to actually design and build their robot.”

He adds, “I liken it to a basketball coach. A basketball coach doesn’t just throw a ball on the court and say ‘play basketball’! You have to teach kids how to play basketball properly, design plays for them and teach them how to be a “smart” basketball player. But in the end, they have to play the game. Same thing with robotics. I have to show them how everything works and how the game is played, but then it’s on them.”

When it comes to the robotics competitions, not only are students competing to win, they are applying what they have learned about science, technology, engineering and math to build their semiautonomous machines. An equally important set of skills is learned through the competition, including communication, project management and composure.

Teams also receive support from Northland Community and Technical College by attending scrimmages and receiving robotics kits as part of the college’s work with 360, a manufacturing-based center of excellence.

 “It is amazing to see how teams who have access to the same materials create innovative robots to compete in VEX Robotics,” says Andrew Dahlen. “This is similar to the challenges faced in business and industry. I hope that the VEX Robotics Program continues to grow and encourage our youth to pursue exciting careers in manufacturing.”

As for Grygla’s own little engine that could, they head to the State Competition next week in St. Cloud. They are great at keeping their fans updated via Facebook. All competitions are open to the public, but if you aren’t able to attend, you can stay up to date by “liking” their Facebook page, titled ‘Iron Chargers 4149G & 4149C’. 

Stay tuned, readers, for potential information about the Worlds Competition, as this is surely one of the teams to beat!