The Vaughn College robotics team competed among 14 college teams in the CSM VEX U Robotics Winter Challenge on Thursday, February 2 at the College of Southern Maryland, and received the tournament champions (VRC/VEXU) award.

This win qualifies the team to advance to the 2017 VEX Worlds, to defend their title as 2016 world champions. Twelve Vaughn students competed and won in Kentucky last year and this year’s team is preparing for a back-to-back championship.

“This win reassured the team that we are in good shape,” said Bilal Rashid ’18, president of the Vaughn College robotics Team. “We are ready to defend the title this year.”

The team used mechanical, electrical and programming skills to build last year’s two award-winning robots, Terra and Pyro. This year’s challenge is “Starstruck,” involving students to design two offensive robots that can throw stars and cubes to the opponent’s side for points.

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