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Health & Fitness

Award-winning UCS robotics team builds its future

The next generation of award-winning Utica Community Schools robotics students is being built at Velocity Jr.

Crevolution, one of the UCS FIRST robotics teams and an international competitor, recently held a week-long camp for their junior high school and elementary peers to promote the excitement that comes with building their own robot from scratch."

Logan Sackey, a senior at the Utica Academy for International Studies, said high school students provided the guidance that allowed camp members to use the same principles as the national FIRST program. 

"We are trying to get them more involved with robotics at an earlier age," he said. 

The FIRST program is a national effort to encourage student interest in science and technology by having them design, build and control a robot that competes in a sports-like competition.

Like its senior high school version, the Velocity Jr. Camp allowed students to build a robot from a packaged kit and program it to complete specific tasks involving basketballs. Team of students built robots that competed against each other in a competition at the end camp. 

Bryan Battaglia, advisor to the program, said the camp creates a bridge between Lego Robotics and the sophisticated robots that are part of the high school FIRST program.

He said the 15 students participating in the camp created their robots using VEX materials - a package specifically designed for younger students. 
"The best part is that they are the ones that are doing it," he said.

Students participating in the camp said they were excited about the idea of creating robots that compete at a higher level. 

"Robotics is my dream career," said Nino Caiozzo, from Shelby Junior High School. 

Crevolution is comprised of students from each of the district's high schools. The team earned top state level honors this year and competed in the international FIRST competition in the spring. 

The Crevolution camp is one of more than 20 activities taking place at the Velocity Jr. Center, housed at Rose Kidd Elementary. 

Velocity Jr. is a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) partnership between UCS and the city of Sterling Heights designed to create and sustain a workforce capable of filling current and future high tech job opportunities that will help Michigan’s economy grow. 

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