For the first time, students from Salesian College Chadstone travelled to Adelaide to compete in the VEX IQ National Championships.
VEX IQ is a robotics competition that helps students develop STEM skills by building robots and completing challenges. Each year a new challenge is released, and teams design and program robots to compete in three main areas: teamwork, driver skills and autonomous.
The national competition took place over two days, 6 and 7 December, 2025 The Year 7 students competed in the VEX IQ division, while older students competed in V5, a more advanced robotics category.
The teamwork challenge required two robots from different teams to work together to score as many points as possible in one minute. In driver skills, one robot competed alone and was controlled by students using a controller. The autonomous category was the most challenging, as the robot had to move using only code, with no controller at all.
The competition was intense. There was limited time to complete each task, and even a small mistake could affect the final score. Although it was sometimes stressful, it was also exciting and enjoyable. Working under pressure and racing against the clock helped us build resilience and strengthen our teamwork.
To qualify for nationals, we first competed at district and state-level events. At state level, our robot achieved a driver skills score of 44 and an autonomous score of 7. Autonomous scores are usually lower because programming a robot with the required precision is extremely challenging.
Competing at a national level was an incredible experience, and we are proud to have represented Salesian College Chadstone on this stage.
Methindu
Biretta Student
