Lincoln Academys Robot 8030A climbs a ladder during practice. The LA robotics team will compete in the VEX Robotics Maine State Championships in Portland on Saturday, March 1. (Photo courtesy Lincoln Academy)
Lincoln Academy’s robotics team 8030A will represent Lincoln Academy and defend their state championship title on Saturday, March 1 at the VEX Robotics Maine State Championships in Portland. LA senior Joseph Levesque, juniors Keiran Roopchand and Kieron Karani, and sophomore Noah Garnett are the team members who engineer and operate robot 8030A.
According to team coach Susan Levesque, these three students started building their robot to suit this year’s VEX Robotics challenge in May 2024, and they’re currently on their fifth iteration of the design, with over 800 hours invested in designing, building, coding, and testing their robot for competition.
In this year’s VEX Challenge, which is consistent for high school robotics teams around the nation and the world, robots that can climb the game’s ladder at the end of the match can earn up to 12 points. This is significant because this year the average points scored in a match is around 15 points.
“Robots that can climb have a huge advantage — and Lincoln Academy’s robot 8030A can climb,” said Susan Levesque. “Keiran, Noah, and Joseph say there are only a handful of robots in the state that can do this.”
The Lincoln Academy robotics team won the 2024 state championship and took their robot to the VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas, Texas last spring. This was the second time in three years that LA’s team made it to the world championships, after placing second at states in 2022.
The state robotics tournament takes place from 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Point Community Center, at 345 Clarks Pond Parkway in South Portland. It’s free and open to the public.
