On March 3 and 4, the VEX robotics team, Ex Machina, competed in the 2023 state championship and won the design award. They are now moving on to Worlds, which will take place in late April in Texas. 

Ex Machina consists of four sophomores: Aneesha Koninty, Niesha Karthik, Amulya Gottipati, and Rayna Budigelli.

VEX robotics is a STEM-based competition. Teams create and build robots designed to win in their respective games. In this competition, the teams must thoroughly document every step along the way in the construction and programming of their robot. It is crucial for teams to not only have a well-functioning and stable robot, but to have clean, calculated instructions as well. “When they read that notebook, they should be able to rebuild the robot from scratch, so we kept a very good track of that,” Karthik said.

For the game, a robot had to collect discs on a field and shoot them into a hoop, similar to basketball. This game stays the same the whole season and will change in the next competition. 

The design award Ex Machina won is the third highest award you can win in the competition, and requires an excellent and well-kept notebook as well as an interview from one of the judges to check the legitimacy of the team and their robot.

Ex Machina made a point to work overtime and extremely well to win the award. “Over the course of the year, we’ve been working really hard on our notebook: we had very good graphs explaining our coding process, our decision processes, and all our engineering processes,” Karthik said.

“Winning the design award is all about collaboration. We were able to create the engineering notebook and split up all the work.” Gottipati said. 

Communication was a key component for Ex Machina as they kept progressing onwards to Worlds, and will be especially important to the team moving forward. “Not only are we teammates, but also really good friends so we’ve come to trust each other; that really plays a factor in how we work together as a team, because during the competitions, sure we’re all stressed out,” Budigelli said.. “Sure we might yell at each other here and there, but we’ve come to rely on each other, which makes us a really strong team.”  Budigelli said. 

The competition was fierce at the States tournament and the skill level only rises as Ex Machina heads to Worlds. “I was pretty excited; I did not expect that (the win) to happen… mainly because there were a lot of teams that were really good, so we thought that with their design they definitely had us beat, but with the engineering aspect of the tournament — that’s where our talent really showed through.” Budigelli said. “I guess the hard work paid off.”

Ex Machina, even with the pressure of the Vex Worlds tournament being so close, still had time to enjoy their victory and how they got there. “I feel really happy because we worked hard to get there and it was a lot of nights and hours just working on the robot and it would never work, but we were able to win because we were able to work together and get the award.” Gottipati said. 

Ex Machina is excited for the trip to Texas for Worlds, despite the unfortunate time frame. “I’m also a little stressed because we’re going to be missing the week before all the AP exams,” Karthik said. Even then, Ex Machina’s spirit is unwavering. “I am super excited for the world championship and meeting teams from around the globe. Gottipati said. “I can’t believe that I will be standing among the best teams from all around the world. The VEX World Championship is also a great opportunity to learn from the best teams, and I can’t wait to see the innovative robots that teams have come up with to tackle this season’s challenge.” 

The Worlds championship will take place on April 25 through May 4 in Dallas, Texas.