The teamwork champions, Scoil Muire Gan Smal, Claremorris, pupils (left side), and their teacher Laura Prendergast, and St .Vincent NS, Coolarne, pupils (right), with their teacher Marc Goldrick, pictured with ATU Galway-Mayo head of engineering Prof. Graham Heaslip, ATU Galway-Mayo VEX coordinator Dr. Carine Gachon, Vex national coordinator David Hodge from MTU, Offaly County Council VEX coordinator Ray Bell, sponsors Isobel Foye, Colm Mitchell and Gail Quinn from Trane Technologies International - Thermo King. Photo: Sean Lydon

Mayo school into national final of VEX IQ Robotics competition

Published:

SCOIL Muire Gan Smal National School in Claremorris will join St. Mary’s NS, Mountbellew, and St. Vincent’s NS, Coolarne, in representing the Galway-Mayo region in the national VEX final after winning awards for excellence and teamwork at the regional VEX IQ 2023 competition hosted by ATU Galway City.

Sponsored by Trane Technologies - Thermo King, the VEX IQ Teamwork Challenge comprises of a series of matches where participating schools team compete with their robots working collaboratively to score points.

The event, which was the culmination of months of hard work designing, building, trouble-shooting and coding their robots, saw over 400 primary school pupils ranging in age from seven to 12 years, from 24 national schools, competing for a place in the national final.

Other awards presented included the design award won by Carnmore NS and judges award won by Glencastle NS.

In this Galway-Mayo heat, participating schools included Williamstown NS, Louisburgh NS, Claddagh NS, Scoil Chomain Naofa NS, Roundfort, St. Patrick’s Primary School NS, St. John’s NS, Logboy, Caltra, Glinsk NS, Foxford NS, Facefield NS, Creagh NS, Cooneal NS, Eyrecourt NS, St. Joseph’s NS, Ballinrobe, St. Augustine’s NS, Clontuskert, Scoil Bhreandan Naofa, Clonfert, Belmont NS, Barnatra NS, and Ballyvary NS.

Glencastle NS pupils, recipients of the judges award, pictured with ATU Galway-Mayo head of engineering Prof. Graham Heaslip, ATU Galway-Mayo VEX coordinator Dr. Carine Gachon, Vex national coordinator David Hodge from MTU, Offaly County Council VEX coordinator Ray Bell, sponsors Isobel Foye, Colm Mitchell and Gail Quinn from Trane Technologies International - Thermo King, and teachers Rosaleen Ruddy and Declan Brady, at the VEX 2023 competition. Photo by Sean Lydon Photographer/ Lydon Images

Dr. Oliver Mulryan, head of mechanical engineering, ATU Galway-Mayo, said : “There was great enthusiasm from all the pupils and it was impressive to see how teachers harness the diversity of talents in the classroom to form a cohesive team on competition day. Teamwork is a key skill of graduate engineers.”

Dr. Carine Gachon, VEX coordinator for ATU Galway-Mayo, added: “Each year, the challenge is different which requires creativity and problem-solving to overcome the difficulties of the game. This year we saw some amazing designs and were impressed with the pupils’ ability to troubleshoot their robot during the competition.”

Published: