Committed to furthering STEM education in schools, Bell launched its third annual Bell Vertical Robotics Competition this past weekend. The 2019 competition theme was On-Demand Mobility which simulated air-taxi movement of people and rapid-delivery of product orders. 17 high school teams from all over the Dallas/Fort Worth, TX area and Virginia were provided a drone kit to assemble and modify to accomplish several unique missions for the competition. The teams were given eight weeks to design, build and integrate their robotic solutions to achieve the On-Demand Mobility challenge with the guidance from Bell Engineering mentors.

The schools involved included: Buinger CTE Academy, Polytechnic High School, Young Women’s Leadership Academy, Richland High School, Young Men’s Leadership Academy, Southwest High School, Little Elm High School, Dubiski Career High School, Cleburne High School, I.M. Terrell Academy for STEM and VPA, Grapevine High School, B.R. Johnson Career and Tech Center, Keller Center for Advanced Learning, Azle High School, Gilbreath Reed Career and Technical Center, Paschal High School and Blacksburg High School.

On competition day, the teams competed head-to-head to put their design solutions to the test. In addition, teams were required to use their critical thinking skills as they executed a product order rapid-delivery mission and completed other problem-solving challenges during the competition.

First place went to Blacksburg High School, second place was awarded to Gilbreath Reed Career and Technical Center and Richland High School received third place.

Four additional teams received special Judge’s Awards. These included:

·      Best Overall Design: Azle High School

·      Exemplary Team: Keller Center for Advanced Learning

·      Presentation and Engineering Notebook: Young Women’s Leadership Academy

·      Judge’s Choice: Paschal High School

In addition to the high school competition, middle school teams participated in the Synchronized Dancing Drones Challenge where the top four winning teams performed their Dancing Drone Show at halftime.

Congratulations to all the competition participants.

Bell and its education committee started this competition to continue inspiring today’s youth with a passion for STEM.