Jason's Trip to the Robotics World Champs in the US 2016

Hi, my name is Jason Collingwood, I am currently 18 years old and I am the builder, driver and programmer for the VEX Robotics Team 2918A from Glenfield College.

Last year when I competed at the World Championships in Kentucky, Louisville, we won the Excellence Award, this is the top award that can be awarded at the competition. The excellence award looks at different criteria to see what school is to be awarded it, some of these being teamwork, two online challenges, competing in both robot skills and programming skills, seeding high in qualification rounds, mentoring of other schools and gracious professionalism throughout the competition. This year I will be returning to the World Championships to defend this award.

At the recent New Zealand National Championships ships I won my division along with my alliance partners, we then went on to compete against the other division champions where three very close matches where played that resulted in a very narrow loss for us.

How I joined robotics:

I am currently starting my first year of university, but I joined the robotics team when I was in year 9. Back in year 9 my best friend, Stedtson, got told near the beginning of the year he will probably have to leave Glenfield College to move up to Whangaparoa during the school year, both me and Stedtson had wanted to join the robotics team, but seeing as he would be leaving soon we decided not to, until his dad finally agreed to let him finish the year at Glenfield College. As Stedtson was now able to stay for the year we both went and joined the Robotics group. Ever since then I have been competing all over New Zealand.

What robotics has done for me:

When I first joined the robotics team I was a shy 'nerdy' kid with very little friends. I now have met so many great people from all around Auckland, New Zealand and the world, and I have also grown to be a more confident speaker. In 2013 I was chosen along with 2 other students to travel to China to talk to students in schools about robotics and the New Zealand education system, where I was able to speak with confidence, something I would never have been able to do if it wasn't for being a part of the robotics team.

I leave on the 15th to travel to this year’s World Championships, which will be the third that I have attended. This year I am attending university, where I am studding engineering, I have chosen to study engineering because of my experience though robotics.

The robot:

The goal for the VEX robots this season is to start within an 18" cube at the start if the match, and stay within this cube for most of the match. We are required to throw balls into a goal using different launching mechanisms. A video from the division play offs can be found here, a huge thanks to Wingus and Dingus for the awesome alliance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ABkqU6vOwI

The World Championships:

I will be leaving New Zealand on the 15th of April and arriving back on the 27rd of April. The costs I am raising for this trip include: travel and accommodation, money for activities, food and spending. The team has currently had some money already donated towards the costs of the trip, which has helped us tremendously, but each team member still haven't been able to cover the costs for some of the travel within Louisville, accommodation, activities, food money and spending money. Please could you support me on this amazing journey by making a donation, every donation counts and is greatly appreciated.