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FAIRMONT, W.Va. (AP) — Many people could only imagine their work someday being important enough to make it onto the International Space Station.
However, thanks to the Zero Robotics competition, a group of middle and high school students from the tri-county area can say just that.
On Aug. 12, robotics teams from Marion, Monongalia and Preston counties came together to participate in a worldwide competition, pitting them against teams from 12 other states and a team from Russia.
Lian Dunlevy, a mentor for Westwood Mechanical Alliance and a Morgantown High School sophomore, said the teams had to code a program to complete a certain task, while at the same time competing with rival teams. While competitions are usually done via computer simulation, the world competition took place in real life on the International Space Station and was streamed live across the world.
"Each year, they get a new game," Dunlevy said. "They're told rules, and they have a simulation where they have their robot complete different tasks against another robot."
From the team's base at the High Tech Foundation in Whitehall's Technology Park, participants could watch the competition happening live from the ISS, as well as the Zero Robotics headquarters at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
While Learning Options won the regional competition, team mentor Alex Stout explained that all of the teams statewide joined together, working to improve the coding done by Learning Options. Stout said that this provides the absolute best possible program for the final competition.
"We come together as one team, and everyone else is here to cheer on the winning team," Stout said.
Loki Hall, a seventh grade student within the Learning Options program and Stout's team member, was happy to have had the experience.
"Honestly, I did not expect to get past regionals," Hall said.
While West Virginia didn't win, they did place in the top five, putting the team in the same league as those from Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.
Despite not winning the entire competition, Dunlevy said that it is still an amazing experience.
"We've been working with mechanical and software on other robotics for a long time, and this was a new thing that gave you an insight on into a completely different region of robotics," Dunlevy said.
Stout said that participation in programs such as Zero Robotics helps provide real life skills, and being able to say that one's work got used on the International Space Station is a huge resume booster.
"The kids that are doing Zero Robotics, they're learning more than they think that they're learning right now," Stout said. "They're learning the foundations of how to program, which is an ever-growing need in our society. Any field you go into now, if you have computer programming experience, you have a leg up on everyone else."
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Information from: The Exponent Telegram, http://www.theet.com
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