Competition helps power Ripley robotics team
RIPLEY — A robotics team in the Ripley community is making its presence known as it continues to the statewide competition for the third year in a row.
Students who participate work to brainstorm ideas to build a robot, engineers put it together, someone codes the robot to make it work and a driver works the robot during the competitions. During the competitions, the teams are given a task or game to complete with their creations. The students also have to answer questions about it.
“The key to the program is that it’s student centered, it’s student led and the students are the driving force,” Melissa Lough, math and robotics teacher at Ripley High School, said.
With the help of Fairmont State University, Lough was able to develop the program. Since its inception, the program expanded to Ravenswood High School and middle school students as well.
“It caught on very quickly. We were very successful our first two years. We’re waiting to see what this year has in store for us,” Lough said.
Ripley High School has two teams: Rip City Beep Boop and Rip City Boop Beep. One team has five students and the other has four.
Lough said some of her graduates went on to compete in robotics at the university level at WVU and Marshall.
The past two years, both teams went beyond the state level and competed in the world competition.
“The world competition has close to 600 teams competing from over 30 different countries. We have been very fortunate and blessed that the principal and superintendent have followed us to worlds the past two years. They have made the trip to Louisville to watch it,” Lough said.
The state competition takes place March 7 at Fairmont State University. Lough said they have some strong competitors but their team has adapted their robot based on the results of the other competitions.
“We’ve got six good teams but we also have six spots going to worlds this year because it’s grown so much,” Lough said.
Skills learned in robotics can help with any engineering career, but Lough said it can help in any profession.
“The determination to see something through is a life skill that will help with any profession,” she said. “They’re given a challenge and they have to be able to trial and error and brainstorm to a successful outcome to win the game or whatever the task might be.”
Candice Black can be reached at cblack@newsandsentinel.com.