February 27, 2025

VINCENNES, Ind. - The Vincennes University Student Recreation Center buzzed with energy and enthusiasm as high school robotics teams participated in a lively scrimmage, putting their engineering knowledge and coding skills to the test on a demanding obstacle course. Joyful shouts could be heard throughout the center when successes occurred. At the same time, dilemmas sparked intense troubleshooting sessions as students huddled over their robots, fine-tuning code, adjusting components, examining performance, and showing off their teamwork.

The VU Center for Applied Robotics and Automation hosted a Robotics Competition Scrimmage for the second straight year with FIRST Indiana Robotics. The 2025 event, held on Friday, Feb. 21, brought teams from Castle, Evansville North, Mount Vernon, New Tech Institute, Princeton, and Washington high schools to the Vincennes Campus for a day of competition training.

VU CARA Director Kimberly Wright said, "We are honored to host this robotics scrimmage because students gain hands-on experiences in a mock competition setting and interact with other teams from throughout Indiana. This scrimmage also encourages them to perfect their communication skills, technical knowledge, and teamwork, which will serve them well in future STEM careers."

FIRST Indiana Robotics describes the robotics competitions as the "ultimate Sport for the Mind," combining the "excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology."

The students built and programmed the robots, which maneuvered through the rigorous challenges on the Student Recreation Center course, showing off the agility and speed of their designs.

The scrimmage was more than a trial run. It was a chance for students to transform problems into breakthroughs, sharpening their competitive edge before FIRST Indiana Robotics district events throughout the state in February and March.

Evansville North High School sophomore and Robotics Team member Colin Fulkerson shared that practicing in person with other robotics teams was incredibly valuable. He explained there was more to the scrimmage than practicing and troubleshooting.

"I'm on the scout team.," Fulkerson said. "You can make alliances in this competition, so I was scouting out potential alliances that we can make to get some cooperation points in the competition."

Brian Bobbitt, a Project Lead The Way Master Teacher and Robotics Coach at Evansville North High School, was thrilled by VU's outstanding offer, which allowed his robotics team to explore their robot's abilities and refine their skills.

"This is the first we've really gotten a chance to drive the robot," Bobbitt said. "We've seen a little in practice, but we hadn't gotten it out on a full field like here. This scrimmage is a huge benefit just for that very fact alone. But we were also able to intermingle with some of the other teams to help them out and to figure out what they needed help with. We shared a lot." 

VU's commitment to robotics and hands-on learning was fully on display at the scrimmage by providing young innovators with impactful experiences, combining problem-solving, teamwork, and the thrill of competition.                                              

To learn more about the Center for Applied Robotics and Automation, visit vinu.edu/cara

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