Published on: Sunday, 24 February 2013

On Friday, 1st March 2013, from 10 am until 3 pm, CIT Science for Life, School of Science and EMC will host a Robot Rumble in the Student Centre NEXUS with Access Linked schools, this is a follow on from the VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) which had its inaugural Irish tournament at the Discovery Festival during Science Week, in City Hall, during November 2012.

VRC is an international robotics competition targeted at students of all ages with an emphasis on fun and creativity while promoting the development of technical and interpersonal skills. With teams ranging from 5 – 15 students, over 50,000 students worldwide are participating in the competition this year. The Robotics Education and Competition Foundation (REC Foundation), the organiser of the VEX Robotics Competition (VRC), exists to connect students, mentors, schools and colleges in every community to a variety of successful and engaging technology-based programmes.

In total, eight Access Linked Schools participated in the competition, all schools were Delivering Equality of Opportunity Schools (DEIS) and the teams were comprised of Junior Cycle students. Davis College, Mallow, were the VRC victors at Discovery and as a result they now have the opportunity to travel to the USA to take their place at the international competition, which is being held in Anaheim, California on the 17th – 20th April 2013. They are hoping to travel with 10 students and they are currently fundraising for the trip, the overall cost of which is approximately €12,000, both the CIT School of Science & Science for Life and EMC have pledged bursaries to aid with the funding of this trip.  

The VRC has been extremely successful in promoting science and engineering and there is no doubt that it has inspired these Junior Cycle students to further their study of the STEM subjects.

We would appreciate if you would take the time to drop by and show your support to this event.