Latest news with #ToddEnsign
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Aerial Drone Competition Northeast Regional Championship begins at Fairmont State University
FAIRMONT, (WBOY) — The Aerial Drone Competition Northeast Regional Championship kicked off Thursday at Fairmont State University, bringing teams from several states to the Mountain State to compete. The event is hosted by the West Virginia Robotics Alliance, which is managed by the NASA IV&V Facility Education Resource Center. Program Manager Todd Ensign told 12 News that the education resource center at the NASA facility in Fairmont strives to prepare students for career paths oriented in the areas of STEM. Ensign added that this competition is one of the many ways that the center is able to engage the students and inspire them to consider careers in things like aerospace engineering, computer programming and engineering. According to Ensign, there were 56 teams at the event that represented schools from Vermont down to Kentucky as part of the northeast region. He added that similar events are taking place in different regions all over the United States, but this event is the largest. The middle school championship will take place Thursday through Friday and the high school regional championships will be held on Saturday and Sunday. Upon arrival, teams will be working with another one to participate in a teamwork challenge, where they must fly their drone through arches and hoops and also move wiffle balls down tracks. Morgantown to implement alternative sentencing program for camping ban The students must communicate cooperatively, and they will share whatever scores they receive. After completing this challenge, the students will move on to the skills field, which tasks them with flying their drones one at a time through a course autonomously. The awards are given out based on an interview that each team gives to the judges, as well as the teams' flight books. According to Ensign, these flight books are where the teams track all of their flights from the entire season, including wins and losses, strategies that they have, as well as data that they've collected about their drone. Every fall, around August, a new game challenge is released, which allows the students to begin preparing their drones for the challenges. Ensign told 12 News that this year's theme was called Gravity, focusing on moving, flying, knocking bean bags off of platforms and moving wiffle balls down tracks. However, Ensign stated that his team at the NASA IV&V Facility Education Resource Center has been preparing for this regional championship over the past year. They've worked with both Fairmont State University and NASA to ensure that they have the appropriate resources available, including the Falcon Center as a venue for the various events. 'We are so fortunate to have not only this venue and the cooperation from Fairmont State, but also to have the support of the president and the administration here at Fairmont State [University],' said Ensign. Ensign stated that NASA underrides a lot of costs to help make this program possible. The regional championship also relies heavily on numerous sponsors, with Aurora Flight Sciences being the key sponsor to present this year's event. 'They're right down the road in Bridgeport, they're building the next generation of aircraft,' Ensign said, regarding Aurora Flight Sciences. 'They have a vested interest in seeing kids learn about this field to prepare themselves for you know, work in the area of advanced air mobility.' All of the events that are taking place within the Aerial Drone Competition Northeast Regional Championship are being livestreamed online via Twitch. You can read more about the West Virginia Robotics Alliance and all of the different robotics programs it has available across the state on its website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Students compete in statewide robotics competition at Fairmont State
FAIRMONT, (WBOY) — Sunday was the first day of the West Virginia VEX Robotics State Championship, bringing K-12 robotics students from around the Mountain State together to show off their smarts and skills. While Fairmont State is on spring break, these students will take over the Falcon Center and be competing to see who gets to go to the VEX World championships in Dallas. 12 News caught some of the high school competition, which takes place Sunday and Monday. For the competition, students were challenged to pilot their robot around a course and put plastic rings on sticks to earn points. Students can also win judging awards with judges looking through and analyzing their engineering notebooks. Dr. Todd Ensign was the judge advisor for the West Virginia VEX Robotics State Championship. When asked about what students get out of robotics, he said students learn a lot of hard skills – engineering, designing, arts, coding, and generally just learning how to solve a problem, and that robotics also offers an opportunity for students to grow in self-confidence and friendship. Families savor the sweetness at West Virginia Maple Syrup Festival 12 News also spoke to several students who said that they've made great friends while doing robotics. Jeremiah Franklin from Ripley High School said, 'The most fun part about it is just being in the robotics room, hanging out with my friends, and seeing what we can make.' Macy Smith of Spring Valley High School said, 'I love building a robot, but I also love all my friends I've made throughout this entire thing. I mean, because in years and years of doing robotics I just kinda learned to love the people too.' Dr. Ensign said that he encourages any student to join robotics and that he would love to help schools set up robotics teams in his other role as the Program Manager for the NASA IV&V Education Resource Center. The VEX Robotics State Competition will continue throughout the week with the middle school and elementary school competitions. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
