From the Digital Technologies Coordinator

Throughout 2026 students in Year 9 and 11 formed their own robotics team; students wrote a proposal to the school, which successfully got them access to a VEX V5 Robotics competition kit. The team dubbed themselves the mechaMaidens, featuring two year 9 students, Joy Julianto and Allegra Illicic and three year 11 students, Jemima Skinner, Lily Reynolds and Sophie Murphey.  The team registered for the 2026/27 season of the VEX Robotics competition and from there the arduous journey of creating a robot began. Each Year the VEX Robotics Competition changes, each season has its own game, which means robots need to be able to accomplish different goals and objectives, this changing dynamic stops teams making one robot and using the exact same robot the next year.

In Term 2 the 2026-27 seasons game was announced and the mechaMaidens got to work on designing, building and programming a robot that would be able to achieve the objectives of the game, stacking specialised cones. The Team would meet up during some lunch times and a dedicated after school time slot every second Wednesday to build their robot.

It took over a term, and with several rebuilds required, the team successfully crafted their first robot, the aptly dubbed Nidhogg. Designed with a large claw and a spinning cone intake, Niddhogg was able to lift a cone well above itself with an extendable arm. The robot was completed just in time for the teams first competition in term 3, the Royal Adelaide Show.

The team did amazingly well for their first competition, winning 4 of the 8 matches they played in. Each match consists of 4 teams, in a 2 versus 2 formats. The mechaMaidens won their first match, even with some robotic hiccups that resulted in some pit stop style programming repairs needed between matches. By the end of the qualifying rounds the team had won 3 and lost 3 putting themselves very much in the middle of the leaderboard. They next moved into the elimination stage where a single loss would end the competition run. They won their first elimination game and the team moved into the semi-finals. The semis are where the team saw defeat, being eliminated by the eventual competition winner. Overall, this year has been an amazing journey for the Robotics Team, and we look forward how the team develops and grows in 2027!

Mr Lochlann Dwyer
Digital Technologies Coordinator

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