Robotics club aims to make new inventions at VEX this year

By Emmett Roman
Staff Reporter

At LCC, there is a group that lots of students might not know about—the Robotics Club. The club focuses on learning new programing, strengthening engineering skills and having fun. Their main purpose is to frequently participate in VEX Robotics Competitions at the VEX Robotics University every year. VEX is one of the biggest robotics competitions, where college students create and program bots to compete in a new challenge every year. According to their website, this year’s game is called “Push Back.” Club Advisor Taylor Vaught is looking forward to competing in this competition: “Currently, we are aiming to compete in the VEX Pushback events where our bot will need to identify, move and sort different objects.”

Now, the club didn’t just begin this year. It began as FIRST INSPIRES Robotics Club when it was first formed in 2015. A couple years later, in 2018, they competed in a VEX competition, according to the LCC Stars page on Instagram. Unfortunately, after its launch, the association laid dormant for several years. However, in 2023, it was revived as the VEX Robotics Club.

Though the club only has three members currently, those members are dedicated to the club’s mission and competing in future competitions. Vaught describes the members as a “small but mighty team,” proving that you don’t need a lot of members to make an impact. They meet every Monday and Wednesday from 4 – 6 p.m.

Students interested in joining the club or learning more about it are encouraged to email the club advisor Taylor Vaught through the Clubs and Organizations webpage on the LCC website.