By: Kimberly Yamaguchi

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During their freshman year, current Sophomores Clayton Dailey and Glenn Galvizo Jr. both qualified separately for the World Championship VEX Robotics Competition in 2011, which is rare for first year Robotics students.  Now partnered together, Dailey and Galvizo recently attended the Hilo VEX Robotics Competition at Waiakea High School from Oct. 7 to 8, where they placed fifth.

“They were number one in my eyes.  (The robot) was built well, programmed well.  (Dailey) is a great driver,” Robotics Adviser Timothy Pregana said.

Dailey, Galvizo and their third team member, Junior Nalani Ogata, spent 60 days working on their robot.  “(They’re here) easy 25 hours in a week,” Pregana added.  Galvizo programmed the robot while Dailey and Ogata built it.  Ogata was unable to make it to the Big Island with her team, but she was just as committed to creating the robot. “Time spent on the robot, team dedication, learning from our past mistakes at other competitions and collecting other possible ideas other teams presented at our competitions (are all important),” explained Galvizo.

At least 18 public and private schools ranging from middle to high school compete in every competition.  On the first day of competition they go through a two-hour inspection, which was followed by two days of skills challenges.  In the skills challenges each team is required to have a robot, made entirely of parts sold by VEX, that can complete the task of lifting a six-inch diameter ball into a scoring tube. “There are qualifying matches which are based on how many people are there.  Then we branch off into the finals, which consist of the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals.  Three teams take part of every alliance in each championship,” explained Galvizo.

After winning their qualifying matches and tying quarterfinals they encountered a problem in the semifinals. “The only problem we had was we lost connection in one match.  That’s why we lost one (match),” Dailey said.

However, Both Dailey and Galvizo are satisfied with how they did in Hilo.  “I felt pretty good.  It’s just that you spend all this time on this robot; it feels good to get some good experience and knowledge out of it,” Galvizo explained.  “Actually the best thing we did was our robot worked really well.  We actually didn’t have that many problems,” Dailey explained.

Even as sophomores, Dailey and Galvizo have consistently done well in competitions and they hope to continue on and eventually  make it to the World Competition at the end of the year.