Chattanooga students battle robots in competition

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Students from the Chattanooga and Nashville areas put their skills to the test in a robotics competition at Volkswagen.

16 teams from 10 different high schools competed for 2 spots at the state competition in various robot categories.

This is the 2nd year Chattanooga has hosted a state qualifying competition.

The Volkswagen Academy had their own group competing and they thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

“It’s awesome and we love it here because we got to build our own robot and they basically just left us unsupervised with it and let us build it. And that worked really well because we got to get close together as a class and now were competing at home in a robotics competition which is one of the things I never thought I would say until I came here,” said Samuel Griffeth, a member of the Volkswagen Academy Team.

Volkswagen also hosted an elementary school competition that was just as competitive as the high school level.

Anna Clark, who is only 12 , said “as you go to more competitions you’ll see that you need a different robot design to help you score more points. And you’ll see people with different robot designs so you look at their ideas and you combine some of your ideas to try to find the best robot design possible.”

Robotics competitions have grown tremendously in Chattanooga over the past couple of years,with close to 20 local teams vying for a spot in the state finals next month.

Sponsors like Volkswagen and the Hamilton County Department of education help bring these competitions to Chattanooga.

“These activities again would not be possible without a lot of people working together for the common goal of improving education here in the community and getting our students ready for the high technology jobs of tomorrow,” said Charles Spencer from Tennessee Valley Robotics.

The state championship is next month in Nashville.