Milpitas High School's Xtreme Robotics club wins Sportsmanship Award at VEX Robotics Competition

The Milpitas Xtreme Robotics (MXR) club at Milpitas High School represented the community on February 16 during the VEX Robotics Competition, becoming semifinalists and winning the Sportsmanship Award at the event.

"It was our first year competing in VEX, and we are incredibly proud to have earned this victory," said Chloe Wang, President of Milpitax Xtreme Robotics. "Even though it may not be a first place trophy, we were able to learn, do well, and give our members and others an unforgettable experience - therefore, it was definitely a victory for us."

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​Editor's Note: Chloe Wang wrote the following article about the team's recent accomplishments and upcoming efforts. 

Milpitas Xtreme Robotics (MXR) is the official robotics club of Milpitas High, which means that we have a huge impact on the Milpitas youth, and are helping to grow Silicon Valley’s next generation of engineers. We strive to give our members opportunities to wet their feet, develop their passions in STEM, explore new experiences in a welcoming community, and create amazing memories by applying what they learned in the classroom as they bring ideas and designs to life.

One of our goals this year is to continue our outreach into the elementary and middle schools of Milpitas, in order to provide this opportunity to younger students that may be interested in STEM and robotics. While this has been a goal of ours for a few years, we haven’t been able to achieve much until this year. Milpitas Xtreme Robotics is proud to say that we have successfully kicked off outreach for younger grades.

In the 2018- 2019 school year, we organized many events and programs. MXR hosted a presentation at Joseph Weller Elementary, to start a conversation about robotics, and increase interest through an informative lecture, and an open floor to questions. Adding onto this, we also helped Rancho Dons Middle School create and organize their own robotics club, 3rr0r Robotics, to spark a passion for robotics and STEM at a young age. One of our bigger and ongoing programs is the Milpitas Xtreme Robotics Pomeroy Program. It’s a 9-week afterschool course at Marshal Pomeroy Elementary, in which 20+ students from different grade levels are guided through the basics of building and programming robots, and get to create their very own robot. In the future, we hope to speak with more elementary students, as well as aid Thomas Russel Middle School in creating a robotics club to call their own.

One of our biggest upcoming events is our MXR  Intra- Club Competition, a tournament-style competition in which small teams from within our club are challenged to build robots that can earn points through the completion of different tasks. Our entire club is working hard to make this event a success, from finding sponsors to coordinating details to building the competing robots. We hope to make the MXR Intra-Club Competition an exciting and memorable night full of new experiences for the whole community, and we want you to help make that happen. Our Intra-Club Competition will be held on Friday, May 24th (6:00 pm - 9:00 PM). We invite everyone, of all ages, to come to explore STEM and see the amazing creations that it results in, and to cheer our teams on. Join us in experiencing the thrill of robotics!