The Malibu High School Sharks robotics team earned the Judges Award at the 2019 California Central Coast VEX “Turning Point” Tournament held at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo earlier this year.
The team beat out 42 other teams from 19 middle and high schools across California to earn the judges’ recognition, according to information provided by the university, earning “the honor that is presented to a team that the judges determine deserves special recognition.”
The team, randomly paired with a middle school team from Northridge for this competition, made it to the quarterfinals in the January 18-19 tournament, hosted by the Cal Poly Society of Women Engineers and San Luis Obispo High School.
The team received the award in recognition of their hard work and perseverance, in the face of obstacles such as the Woolsey Fire.
Judes said the Sharks team “was a shining example of perseverance and passion in young engineers. They experienced a fire this VEX season, but they didn’t let that slow them down. The team impressed the judges by continuing to work on their robot without any delay. They had the impressive self-management skills to keep adding high-quality documentation to their design notebook as they worked on their robot from the hotel where they were staying.”