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Southwestern Michigan College sheltered a “homeless” middle/high school robotics team in October 2023.

The gesture is paying dividends today as the RoboTZ (Robo-Tech Zone, a community-based non-profit facilitating competitive robotics teams) advance to state and national competition again.

RoboTZ brought home four awards from Jenison Jan. 11 — Innovate, Amaze, Judge and a hard-fought second place in the champions tournament.

They are state-bound in February to Kettering University in Flint for high school, Grandville for middle school and the U.S. Open in March at Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The RoboTZ are subdivided into two middle school teams, Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang and the Purple People Eaters; and two high school teams, Say Hello to My Little Friend and Neon Picklz.

“SMC’s been very good to us,” said Chris Kimmey of Dowagiac, a metals company salesman in his second year coaching the team with his wife, TanyaJo, or JoJo. Three players are their homeschooled children, seventh-grade twins Tallula and Cashton and junior Johncarlo, with the Berrien Springs Partnership Program.

The Kimmeys coordinate use of their Niles classroom with its 12-by-12-foot practice field for four hours each Thursday, 4-8 p.m., with Chair of the School of Business and Advanced Technology and Professor of Robotics Larry Holz and his dean, Dr. Karen Reilly.

“I have taken kids on tours of the robotics lab and welding areas and hope this will generate program interest in the future,” Holz said. “I also stress the value of dual-enrolled classes to them.”

But the RoboTZ/SMC partnership actually originated the summer before at Physics Professor Andrew Dohm’s popular Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Camp, which the Kimmey children attended. JoJo contacted Dohm and “he instantly wanted to do lunch.” She prepared for their meeting by reading a profile on the former Chrysler engineer in The Southwester alumni magazine.

Mrs. Kimmey loved STEM in school before she became a businesswoman, and she knows as a mom “the kids are hungry for STEM. They’re building robots, but they’re also building their futures.” Her oldest son has become interested in biomedical engineering.

A team of coaches and mentors, including a neighbor who is a retired engineer and a parent with IT coding expertise, guides students through concepts.

VEX competitions for middle school through college bring STEM skills to life by tasking teams of students with designing and building a robot to play against other teams in a strategic, game-based engineering challenge.

There was a launch party in May for the roll-out of this season’s High Stakes, which pits red and blue alliances trying to stack 48 seven-inch donut-like rings — 24 of each color — on 10 stakes. With five mobile stakes, considerable strategy is involved in their placement, as well as coding it to climb a monkey-bars-like structure.

Each week, students apply what they’ve learned about STEM in the lab to build these semi-autonomous machines.

An equally valuable set of skills is learned through competition – communication, project management, time management and teamwork.

“Not only have these students developed the technical skills to design a winning robot, I am most proud of their ability to grow their soft skills in communication, game strategy, problem-solving and sportsmanship,” Chris said. “The RoboTZ program is making a positive impact on these future leaders.”

RoboTZ students gather to learn about electronics, programming, mechanical systems, 3D CAD design and materials fabrication while meshing into a strongly-bonded team as “they navigate their own ship,” as JoJo puts it.

Abbey Rohweder, Berrien Springs Partnership Program; Aiden Little, Andrews Academy; and Aubrey Rohweder, Berrien Springs Partnership Program comprise the Purple People Eaters. They won the Judge Award for a team interview demonstrating effective communication skills, teamwork and professionalism.

Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang, who look like chimney sweeps in top hats and tuxedo T-shirts (an homage inspired by Witch Doctor on Discovery Channel’s BattleBots), captured the Innovate Award while becoming state- and U.S. Open-qualified again.

Team members include Lukas Taggart, Dowagiac Middle School; Bennett Goebel, Berrien Springs Partnership Program; David Gearhart, Berrien Springs Virtual Academy; Tallula Kimmey, Berrien Springs Partnership Program; and Cashton Kimmey, Berrien Springs Partnership Program. The Innovate requires an engineering notebook to emphasize design aspects that are unique, innovative and creative.

Say Hello to My Little Friend consists of Emily Carr, Berrien Springs High School; Johncarlo Kimmey, Berrien Springs High School/Math and Science Center; and Jackson Grall, Edwardsburg High School/Math and Science Center. They won an Amaze Award recognizing a consistently high-performing and competitive robot. They also qualified for state and the U.S. Open.

Finally, Neon Picklz consists of Lily Rohweder, Berrien Springs Partnership Program; and Sofia Navia of Ruth Murdoch Elementary School, Berrien Springs.

The Robotics Education and Competition (REC) Foundation manages the VEX Robotics Competition, which thousands of schools participate in around the world each year. 

REC Foundation’s VEX family of robotics programs involves 1.1 million students in 70 countries.