GRANDVILLE, Mich. — Over 120 robotics teams gathered at Grandville High School on Saturday for the 4th annual West Michigan Holiday VEX Tournament.
VEX is the largest educational robotics program in the world, in which middle schoolers, high schoolers, and college students compete.
"I guess there is a little bit of pressure because you see some robots and you say to yourself that looks a lot," student Sam Miedema said. "That looks impressive and really competitive and you try and think of well how's it gonna be against your robot."
The stakes are high at the VEX tournament. Teams have a shot to go to national and world-level competitions.
Last year, Unity Christian High School made it to the world championship.
The state-of-the-art program in Grandville will soon have a facility to match.
“We’re looking forward to two years from now, we’ll have a new building," Doug Hepfer, the head coach of the Grandville robotics program said. "Voters recently approved a millage. We’re building a competition arena like this dedicated to robotics. It’s the first one in the country and you’ll see us host even bigger groups from broader areas because Grandville’s gonna keep increasing its commitment to educational robotics.”
