DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — A group of Ohio Virtual Academy students has been named fourth-place winners in a national robotics competition, and two of the students have ties to the Miami Valley.
In May, the OHVA Cardinals team composed of eighth-grader Reed Wiest from Piketon; eighth-grader Lincoln DelGrosso from Kettering; and sixth-grader Connor Pritchard from Dayton, participated in Stride K12’s National Robotics Competition.
The team faced off against 11 other teams in the virtual first round, using Cogmation Robotics software to develop code to navigate a robot through a maze. In the virtual second round, the team competed in a recycling challenge where they had to instruct their robot to pick up cans and place them in a recycling bin.
After the second round, the OHVA Cardinals team, along with four other teams from Texas and Washington, advanced to the final round which took place in person at the Stride K12 headquarters in Herdon, Virginia.
In the final competition, each team had to use code to instruct their robot to move two blocks from a starting point to a designed square on a robotics mat. Scores from the best of three rounds were used to determine winners, placing the OHVA Cardinals team in fourth.
“Reed, Lincoln and Connor worked extremely hard over the last few months on their code, and it was encouraging to see their hard work pay off,” said Dr. Kristin Stewart, head of school at OHVA.
“We’re extremely grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Stride K12 to offer experiences like this to all our students, allowing them to explore their interests in a real-world setting.”
