Coral Glades JROTC Wins 1st Place at County Robotics Competition

by News Staff May 16, 2024

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Coral Glades JROTC Wins First Place at County Robotics Competition

Coral Glades High School JROTC VEX Robotics Team. {David Volz}

The VEX Robotics Team, a part of the Coral Glades High School Army JROTC program, won first place as the school hosted a Broward County robotics competition in January.

Broward JROTC teams representing all military branches were invited.

Tausghanea Hutchinson, a Coral Glades High School senior and JROTC member, loves learning about robots and programming. She is part of the program’s VEX Robotics team, which has won local and national honors. She and her teammates build, program, and repair robots, which can be entered into competitions.

“We can program the robots to pick up and place blocks into containers and complete obstacle courses. We learn how to write code and get the robots to move,” said Hutchinson.

Tony Eran, a junior, also enjoys building and working with robots. “I like being able to program a robot to drag blocks around. It was fun to make the arm for a robot. We design robots here,” Eran said.

Marlon Simpson, a sophomore, likes working with technology. He can describe how to program a robot to complete various tasks. “I like programming and building robots. I have been programming a robot to drive faster. I like working with robotics,” said Simpson.

Coral Glades JROTC Wins 1st Place at County Robotics Competition

Marlon Simpson, Tausghanea Hutchinson and Tony Eran — members of the
Coral Glades High School JROTC VEX Robotics Team. {David Volz}

The Coral Glades JROTC team earned first place.

According to Hutchinson, the teams play a game similar to soccer using robots. The robots pick an acorn, similar to a soccer ball, and strive to place it in a goal. The teams are divided into red and blue teams, and offensive and defensive strategies are used to score points using the acorns. “This is a fun and exciting game to play,” said Hutchinson.

Master Sergeant Charles Dean, who teaches robotics at Coral Glades, was proud of the team and their work. “The students learn about mechanics and programming. They learn how to drive the robot,” he said.

This year, the JROTC robotics team could not travel to the state and national VEX robotics competitions. However, they were able to participate in the national competition in Dallas last year.

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