Thirty-two robotics teams from schools as far away as Fresno converged to compete at the Mark Richardson Center for Technical Education recently, and three local teams qualified for the state championship.

The inaugural Hearts and Gears Vex Robotics tournament was sponsored by the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District.

With the district having added robotics to all the high schools this year, there are now more than 20 teams.

“I am very proud of our eight PVHS teams. It was a great opportunity to have this competition in Santa Maria as it gave my students’ families and friends a chance to see where they [the students] have poured their hearts and souls into this year,” said Laurie Geronimo, Pioneer Valley High coach.

Santa Maria High school added five teams this year. “Our Saints have developed a strong bond with each other and they now challenge each other, given the fact that they also go up against each other in competitions,” said SMHS Coach Antonio Conango.

A Pioneer Valley team won two awards, one for skills champion, the other for tournament champion.

“We put in a lot of hard work every single day, and this competition showed that it really paid off. Beyond competing, this event gave us the chance to meet and learn from so many different teams,” said Bernadette Bolusan of PVHS.

“Sharing engineering ideas, talking strategy, and just connecting with people who love robotics made the experience even more meaningful,” she said.

Vex designs the competitions to promote cooperation among competitive teams in order to model the goals of the engineering industry.

“If we are going to bring manufacturing back, we are going to need a lot of engineers, and especially engineers with diverse backgrounds that might see problems and solutions differently due to their unique life experiences,” said Delta Coach Jeff Cooper.

The Pioneer Valley team formed an alliance and shared the tournament championship with Delta High School. Alliances compete 2 vs 2 in a game titled Push Back this year.

“I spent hundreds of hours building and programming my robot along with my team members since last August. But, I have been learning about structures, gear boxes, gear ratios, drivetrains, and how to program in Python since last school year,” said Brendan Perez, Delta High School, lead driver and programmer for the Tournament Champions.

“At some point I knew there was too much invested in my learning, my teammates, and the robot to go back, the only outcome was to prove to people what we can do,” he said.

“I am honored once again to experience the opportunity to witness Delta High School students competing in robotics and through their hard work continuing to demonstrate what is possible for everyone,” Cooper said.

“While I am excited about the victory, I see each team’s robot as the best example of what happens when people work together and never give up,’’ he said.

Another team from Delta High School also won the Create Award for their unique and innovative solutions to the game’s challenges.

Righetti High School also had a team qualify for the state championship for design.

“This award reflects the creativity, and perseverance of our students,” said Shiffa Iqbal, Righetti coach. “The Design Award at the Hearts and GearsTournament is a testament to how our team took on engineering challenges, collaborated effectively, and turned ideas into innovation.”

The RECF foundation sponsors the Vex Robotics Competition. There are some 20,000 teams competing in this division in more than 50 countries.

Vex is the largest and fastest growing robotics competition in the world, organizers said.

The State Regional Championship will be March 13-14 at California State University, Bakersfield. For more, search RECF or Vex Robotics.