MORGANTOWN — The West Virginia University Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources opened its doors to dozens of student engineers as it hosted the Mountaineer VEX Robotics Competition for the fourth consecutive year at the WVU Mountainlair.
Held in the Gold and Blue Ballroom, the two-day competition brought middle and high school robotics teams from across West Virginia to Morgantown for a weekend filled with problem-solving, teamwork and high-energy matches. The event is organized in partnership with the West Virginia Robotics Alliance, a statewide network of educators, volunteers and advocates who coordinate competitive robotics opportunities throughout the school year.
“We’re very pleased with everything that’s been happening today,” said Annie Harmon, coordinator for outreach in robotics at the Statler College of Engineering. “This is our fourth year hosting a VEX Robotics tournament at WVU, and we do this in partnership with the West Virginia Robotics Alliance. We basically throw the doors open and say, middle school and high school robotics teams, we will host a competition — just feel free to come.”
This year’s competition welcomed 26 teams representing communities from across the state, including Fairmont, Bridgeport, Wheeling, Charleston and Pocahontas County. Harmon said the geographic diversity is one of the event’s strengths, giving students a chance not only to compete but also to experience the WVU campus.
“They’ve all come to see the WVU campus a little bit, as well as enjoying the Mountainlair while they’re doing their competition,” Harmon said. “You get the best of both worlds.”
The Mountaineer VEX Robotics Competition is one stop in a much larger season for participating teams. Students begin designing, building and coding their robots at the start of the school year, refining their designs through multiple competitions.
“Leading up to today, this is just one competition of many that these teams will participate in,” Harmon explained. “They design their robots, build them, code them and test them out. By this time in the school year, they’ve probably already done some competitions, and they have more in the future.”
On competition day, teams arrive early to check in and have their robots inspected to ensure they meet size and safety requirements. From there, they are randomly paired with teams from other schools to compete in head-to-head matches, scoring points with game pieces in an arena that resembles a robotic version of soccer.
In addition to driver-controlled matches, students also compete in an autonomous portion, where robots operate entirely on pre-written code.
“What these students are doing is putting their robot in position, hitting go, and then for a set amount of time the robot is going completely independently,” Harmon said. “It’s scoring points on its own, based on the coding that the students created.”
Throughout the day, teams can be seen making adjustments — tweaking code, repairing mechanisms and strategizing for upcoming matches. As the competition progresses, students select alliance partners, emphasizing collaboration and sportsmanship alongside competition.
“That teamwork and sportsmanship really comes out,” Harmon said. “They know they’re competing against each other, but they also know they may end up partnering with those same teams in hopes of making it to the state championship.”
Top-performing teams at the Mountaineer VEX Robotics Competition earn the opportunity to advance to the VEX Robotics State Championship, held in March at Fairmont State University. From there, qualifying teams may move on to the VEX Robotics World Championship later in the spring, competing against teams from across the United States and around the world.
For Harmon and the Statler College, the event is about more than competition — it is about building pride in West Virginia’s growing robotics community and showing students what is possible close to home.
“It was a surprise to me how the youth competitive robotics scene is thriving in West Virginia,” Harmon said. “This didn’t exist when I was a kid, but it has really grown. These students are genuinely learning engineering skills. They’re being engineers. They’re going through the engineering design process.”
Beyond technical skills, students are also developing communication and professional experience. Teams are interviewed by judges — many of whom are WVU faculty and students — and present their engineering notebooks and design processes.
“They’re building, designing, but they also have to do presentations,” Harmon said. “They’re being interviewed by judges, and they have to present their findings. Those are really valuable skills for them to build.”
Harmon hopes the competition fosters a sense of pride and possibility among participants.
“My hope is that it builds a sense of pride — like, wow, look at what is happening in my home state in something that I’m interested in,” she said. “They’re meeting faculty, graduate students and undergraduates who are doing robotics, and it’s a chance for us to highlight our research and our undergraduate major in robotics.”
The Statler College regularly partners with schools across West Virginia for robotics outreach, offering hands-on learning experiences that introduce students to engineering concepts at an early age. Hosting the Mountaineer VEX Robotics Competition allows WVU to extend that mission on a larger scale.
“We’re delighted to have these students here on our campus,” Harmon said. “It’s a chance to show them what’s possible if they decide to pursue engineering, robotics engineering or computer science. They’ve already been on campus — and that’s a great start.”
For many of the teams competing in Morgantown, the weekend represents an important step toward the next level. Top-performing teams will advance to the VEX Robotics State Championship, scheduled for March at Fairmont State University, where they will compete for a chance to represent West Virginia on the world stage later this spring.
Email: Bpowell@dominionpost.com
