CSM Hosts 35 Middle and High School Teams in 'High Stakes' Robotics Tournament

The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) hosted 35 teams of local and regional middle- and high-school students last weekend at the Southern Maryland VEX V5 Robotics Tournament held at the La Plata Campus. At the Feb. 15 tournament, student-team-built robots were inspected, put to the test, judged, and awarded for their high-tech efforts.

“I know I am looking at our region’s best and brightest,” CSM President Dr. Yolanda Wilson shared as she welcomed the tournament’s participants Saturday. “I have no doubt that we are going to see an enormous amount of innovation, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration today and we encourage you to have fun while you engage in friendly competition. 

“Just remember, each of you are the STEM and STEAM leaders of tomorrow and I am confident that our future is incredibly bright with you charting the path forward,” she continued.  

The VEX V5 Robotics Tournament, presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, is the largest and fastest growing middle school and high school robotics program globally with more than 20,000 teams from 50 countries playing in over 1,700 competitions worldwide. Each year, an engineering challenge is presented in the form of a game.  

The foundation’s global mission is to provide every educator with competition, education, and workforce readiness programs to increase student engagement in science, technology, engineering, math, and computer science.  

This year’s challenge for student teams was titled “High Stakes.” The objective was to score red or blue plastic rings on a variety of stakes on the competition field, with a further challenge of scaling a ladder in the center of the 12’ x 12’ field.  

Members of CSM’s competitive robotics team, the Talons, hosted the competition and joined in by volunteering as scorekeepers, referees and judges at the tournament. CSM faculty members pitched in as judges, hosts, and field construction and cleanup crews.  

Congratulations to the following winners:  

Excellence Award: Area 53 Alien Raiders, Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Greenbelt  

Tournament Champions: Team 943A, Towson High School Law and Public Policy program, Towson, and Cyber Knights, North County High School, Glen Burnie  

Tournament Finalists: Southern Maryland Robotics Club Lucky Duckies, La Plata, and Southern Maryland Robotics Club Marauders, La Plata  

Design Award: Southern Maryland Robotics Club Marauders, La Plata  

Robot Skills Champion: Southern Maryland Robotics Club Lucky Duckies, La Plata  

Judges Award: All Torque, Westlake High School, Waldorf  

Innovate Award: Kaizen, Thomas Stone High School, Waldorf  

Build Award: Team 934A, Towson High School Law and Public Policy program, Towson  

Create Award: Cyber Dragon of North Potomac  

Sportsmanship Award: My Favorite Team, James Rumsey Technical Institute, Martinsburg, W Va.  

Volunteer of the Year Award: George Jenkins  

The winners of the Excellence Award, Tournament Champions, and Design Award proceed to regional championships.  

To learn more about CSM’s Talons team, visit https://www.csmd.edu/student-services/student-life/robotics/index.html.   

To view more photos from this event, please visit Zenfolio | College of Southern Maryland Photos | 02-2025 Southern Maryland Vex V5 Robotics Competition.