Search form

You are here

Quinsigamond Community College Robotics Expertise Leads to MA Robotics Championship Wins!

Contact: Cherie Ronayne
Office of Institutional Communications
508.854.2849
cronayne [at] qcc.mass.edu

Release Date: 
1/16/2014

Worcester, MA – January 16, 2014 – Quinsigamond Community College hosted the VEX Robotics MA State Championship for middle and high school teams at QCC’s West Boylston Street, Worcester location on January 11. Worcester teams under the tutelage of QCC’s Betty Lauer (Professor of Computer Systems Engineering Technology and Coordinator of the Computer Systems Engineering Technology Program) garnered top spots in the competition. 

Eighty teams state-wide participated in the tournament run by QCC student volunteers and faculty. Winning teams advance to the New England Division VEX Championship, also run by QCC. Of 30 Middle Schools that participated in the MA State Tournament at QCC, Worcester East Middle School garnered the top spot while Leominster Youth Robotics, Inc. placed second and Walsh Middle School of Framingham finished in third place. 

Fifty robotics teams competed in the High School division; tournament champions are Bancroft School, Worcester, (first place); Worcester Technical High School, Worcester (second place); and Green Eggs Robotics from Oakham in third place. Winning teams from the New England Championship move on to the VEX Robotics World Championships – 2013’s World Champion High School Team from Worcester Technical High School was coached by Professor Lauer who says, “I am in awe that we are responsible for incubating robotics teams that can compete on a world-class level.”  (Green Eggs Robotics, also coached by Professor Lauer, has the distinct honor of placing second at the World Championships, two years in a row.)

QCC has enjoyed great success building a pipeline of students interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) by providing opportunities for K through 12 Worcester public school students to participate in Robotics technology programs. The Robotics program, pioneered and facilitated by Professor Lauer, is currently in its 11th year and is one of the largest robotics consortiums in the United States. Students in the program gain expertise in robotics at an advanced level and many who participate as high school students have become very successful QCC students, later transferring to notable 4-year colleges and universities. While at QCC, they are able to participate in college-level competitive robotics and have also gone on to compete in the college division of the VEX World Championship Competition. 

The VEX Robotics MA State Championship was sponsored by EMC Corporation, Greater Worcester Foundation and the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation.

Quinsigamond Community College is the most affordable higher education in Worcester County. As a regional leader in education and workforce development, QCC serves the diverse educational needs of Central Massachusetts by providing affordable, accessible, and high quality programming leading to transfer, career, and lifelong learning.

randomness