SANDY, Ore. – Stationed in the bleachers above a throng of youths wielding joysticks and their fast-moving creations, Lu Seapy monitored the progress of her five Oregon State University Extension 4-H Robotics teams as they competed in the VEX IQ Robotics Oregon State Championship.
Two elementary-school boys on the All-Stars team drove their plastic robot around a low, white playing field, collaborating with another team's robot to capture lime-green blocks and dump them into boxes.
At the other end of the Cedar Ridge Middle School gymnasium, four girls on The Dalles Middle School's Microfish team anxiously watched their bot complete an autonomous “skills challenge,” following the route they'd programmed over the course of months.
The students had hit the road at 5:30 a.m. that morning to travel to Sandy from The Dalles and Dufur, chaperoned by parents, high-school mentors, and Seapy, the STEM Outreach Program Coordinator for OSU Extension in Wasco County.
Seapy introduced VEX Robotics to 4-H in Wasco County seven years ago, and has coached the elementary, middle- and high-school students ever since. Under her leadership, the 4-H teams have become some of the highest-scoring in the state. They have even made it to the global championship six times, competing against students from all over North America, Europe and Asia. In 2022, one of Seapy’s teams ranked eighth in the world.
The winners of the Oregon State Championship qualify directly for the VEX World Robotics Competition, so Wasco County 4-H’ers are preparing to take on the world again.
Robotics in a rural county
Every year, the Texas-based Robotics Education & Competition Foundation designs new layouts for the VEX Robotics challenges. Once the foundation releases the details to the 20,000 participating teams in 50 countries, the plotting and building begins.
Starting in September, each Wasco County 4-H team meets several times a week to design, program and construct a robot capable of navigating the playing field. Students bolt together plastic strips, gears and wheels or join them with elastic bands. They program the bot's “brain” to respond to a remote joystick or complete a programmed run.
Robotics is relatively new to 4-H programs in Oregon, according to Seapy, who taught in career and technical schools before joining OSU Extension.
“When I was in 4-H, I completed small-animal and sewing projects,” Seapy said. “Now I teach underwater, aerial and land-based robotics.”
Over the past 10 years, Seapy has written dozens of grants that brought in more than $750,000 to fund 4-H STEM programs in Wasco County. She has helped organize local “scrimmages” as well as trips to state and global championships. Seapy has trained computer-science teacher Chuck Webber to take over The Dalles High School's robotics teams, and she's now working with coaches in Dufur and Maupin as well.
OSU Extension’s support for the robotics program helps level the playing field for her 4-H teams, Seapy says. Many of the Portland Metro Area and Willamette Valley teams at the competition are coached by professionals in the computer industry. In an agricultural region like Wasco County, parents are less likely to have computer science skills, let alone the resources to cover trips to Dallas for the global championships.
“It’s very unusual to have a team from a very small town in Eastern Oregon place eighth in the world,” Seapy said. “That is phenomenal.”
Social and scientific outlets
At the state championship on Feb. 24, Cedar Ridge Middle School's bleachers were packed with parents, siblings and friends, some toting coolers filled with food and drinks to help the competitors make it through the 14-to-16-hour day.
Marc McAllister watched both of his sons from the stands. Jack, a high school senior, is a member of Wasco County 4-H’s champion System Overload team, but here he was refereeing one of the middle-school competitions. Meanwhile, Will, an eighth grader, was competing with his own team, the Disconauts.
“All the kids have different strengths and things they like to do,” Marc McAllister said. “Some kids like to build robots. Some like to do computer programming. Some kids like the social aspect and the strategy.”
Both sons, he added, now use the social-media platform Discord to communicate with robotics teams around the world.
In between rounds, the Wasco County teams gathered in the “pit” area of the gym, eating pizza and making last-minute repairs to their robots.
“My favorite part of robotics is driving,” said Amy Morales, a member of team Microfish, whose robot had started out the day with a wonky wheel but was now running at peak performance.
“My favorite thing is that I get to do stuff I like to do, but I get to be with my friends,” added her teammate, Io Galt, one of Microfish's programmers.
Champions mentoring champions
On the playing field, Ian Castaneda watched the Disconauts, the middle-school team he mentors, set up their skills run. The high-school senior was scheduled to compete with his own team, System Overload, at VEX Robotics' Oregon State High School championships the next Saturday.
Castaneda has participated in the Wasco County 4-H Robotics program since fifth grade. He said that the Wasco County teams have done well at the state and international levels because they share the knowledge and experience they’ve gained.
“When the program started, we had to learn it all ourselves,” he said. “Now that I'm coaching the Disconauts, we can skip steps. I can tell them, ‘Don't use these mechanisms because they may not work.’ Or, ‘If this error happens, I can tell you how to fix it.’”
A grant that Seapy secured pays for Castenada's time. One of his Disconauts mentees is his younger brother, Edgar.
Ian Castaneda tries to impart the mindset that helped System finish eighth in the world in 2022: Studying the highest-performing robots all over the world with an eye to outperforming them.
“We want to beat the best of the best,” he said.
He already plans to pursue his interest in robotics in college. Next year, he'll be studying computer science at OSU. His System Overload teammate, Jack, also plans to attend OSU.
According to Seapy, 75-100% of graduating high-school students from the Wasco County 4-H Robotics teams have gone to OSU.
“It's a very successful feeder program for OSU,” she said. “OSU has a good engineering program, and the kids have a lot of familiarity with OSU.”
Some of the 4-H alumni now compete on the university's VEX robotics team.
A successful year
When the final scores of the middle school state championship posted, it became clear that Wasco County's 4-H Robotics teams did well again. After interviewing each of the 25 teams, the judges presented Microfish with their Sportsmanship Award. And the Disconauts won top honors – the 2024 Excellence Award – for their robot build, game scores and team interview.
One week later, System Overload and Syntax Error won top honors at the Oregon state high-school championships.
The Disconauts are now hoping to raise $10,000 through a GoFundMe campaign to cover their travel expenses and competition fees. Seapy has set up a second GoFundMe campaign for the two high school teams. If they can raise enough funds, all three 4-H teams will head to Dallas in May to represent Wasco County in the Global VEX Robotics Championships.
