Another year, another successful VEX Nationals.
Last weekend, a few dozen volunteers, 70 high school teams and hundreds of students, staff and parents took over the Massey University Recreation Centre in Albany for the annual national competition.
This is the event many teams have been working all year towards, attending the scrimmages supported by our dedicated AURA volunteers, spending time with AURA mentors and pouring their creative efforts into their robots.
AURA provided the bulk of the volunteering force, with over 20 volunteers working over the four days ensuring the competition ran smoothly. It was great to see both some of our graduate members taking time away from lawyering and engineering to volunteer, and some of our incoming undergraduate members giving back to the competitive community they’ve been part of for so long. With new members like these, AURA will continue to be a powerhouse for both volunteering and competition efforts for years to come.
While all of our volunteers did a fantastic job, special commendations must be given to:
Jess Chase, our Volunteer Officer, who was officially recognised as the Volunteer of the Year, and who organised all of the volunteers for this years competition.
Nathan Allen, whose technical expertise and competition software integration efforts made all of our efforts so much more efficient.
Rui Wen, for his help in communicating with visiting Chinese teams.
George Gillard, who was on the organising committee for nationals.
We’re happy that so many great high school teams will be joining us this year when we travel to the VEX Robotics World Championships this April in Louisville, Kentucky. Hopefully, we will continue New Zealand’s outstanding performance and bring home another stack of trophies in both the High School and University division.