Hello! Welcome back to IntroVex, your robotics guide to VEXcellence.
Every competitor in VEX has their own unique journey. Their experience in growth, learning, and failure is also irreplaceable. Have you ever wondered what the VEX players near you experienced that navigated them through competitions and made them what they are now?
In this interview, we are joined by someone who has participated in VEX competitions for 7 years. He is Andrew, a competitor from Taiwan. He participated in 5 years of VEX IQ and 2 years in VEX V5, while one of his greatest achievements was securing the teamwork world champion as well as the excellence award during the Live Remote World Championship in 2021-2022 Pitching In season. Let's hear what he has learned along the way!!
About Andrew
What roles have you taken on in your team, and which do you like best?
Andrew: "I’ve done everything, including driving, building, programming, and engineering notebooks. My favorite is driving because with every round of practice, I can feel myself improving, and reaching milestones gives me a real sense of accomplishment."
There are many kinds of roles that need people to complete and take on responsibility, but not everyone can determine their role when they first join VEX. It takes time for you to try different ones to find your favorite and to find the one you are good at. In the 7 years, Andrew tried everything and found that driving was his favorite. Aside from driving, we can also see from his achievements that he studied robot structures and programming deeply as well.
When did you first join VEX? Why did you start?
Andrew: "My first season was 2018–2019, Next Level. My parents bought a basic kit to let me try it out. I didn’t really feel much accomplishment at first, and kept going kind of half-heartedly. But over time, I found it more and more interesting, and I’ve been doing it ever since."
Out of all VEX participants, there must be some who didn't start learning robotics to compete in VEX competitions but got attracted to it and continued to play. Indeed, I am one of them. I started going to robotics classes just to learn the new technology trend, but at last I got interested in competing and continued doing so until now. That is why I would suggest, instead of trying to make a decision in your head, trying a little at first to decide whether to compete or not would be the better option.
Learning Process
What kinds of difficulties did you encounter in your learning process?
Andrew: "When it came to learning programming and building, the resources felt limited and hard to find. Maybe they were out there, but most were in English, so I couldn’t understand much. And often they didn’t really get to the point."
Sometimes the online tutorials are made by experienced teachers or students, but they might accidentally miss some basic concepts that may seem obvious while actually being difficult for beginners to understand. It isn't easy to create tutorials that cover both difficult and fundamental concepts at once. IntroVex will work hard to cover the basic concepts and try to convey knowledge to everyone!!
What was the hardest problem you encountered? How did you solve it?
Andrew: "It was during the Skills Challenge. My robot’s autonomous program wasn’t moving steadily, so I looked up videos on PID control to learn how to fix it."
What kind of video or help would’ve made things easier at the time?
Andrew: "I only found one video from a foreign team explaining P control step-by-step. If there were more detailed tutorials, especially in Chinese, that would’ve helped a lot."
Since English-speaking teams are the majority of the teams that participate in VEX, many online tutorials are created in English. However, since Taiwanese teams often understand Mandarin better, IntroVex will try to cover some important or complex topics in both languages to reach out and help more teams. Also, subtitles can be found on YouTube and can be translated into many other languages as well.
Advice for New Competitors
What advice would you give to someone new to VEX?
Andrew: "Choosing teammates is really important. Instead of just picking close friends, it’s better to find people who are passionate about VEX and willing to work hard. If you're just doing it for fun, that’s fine, but if you want to be serious about competing, choose wisely."
That's right!! Team composition is a very important factor to consider!! If every team member has similar goals and is willing to cooperate with each other on different aspects, naturally, a good team could be formed. This is why taking your time to find teammates is an important step before the season starts!!
What’s something you wish you knew in your first year?
Andrew: "I wish I had divided the work better and trusted my teammates more. Of course, I could still keep learning myself, but I didn’t need to do everything alone. If you do too much on your own, your teammates don’t improve, and then later, you won’t feel comfortable letting them take over. It becomes a cycle, and in the end, you’re competing alone."
This experience delivers the importance of allocating roles within a team. If someone in your team takes on the role of allocating jobs for each person, with correct cooperation and trust, the team would be able to grow and learn together from successes and failures. However, it isn't an easy task if you just joined the competition recently. This year, I am also trying to accomplish this by understanding more about my teammates and trusting them in the process of trying.
What’s the biggest thing VEX has taught you over the past 7 years?
Andrew: "It’s definitely expanded my perspective. If I hadn’t done robotics, I probably would’ve only known people from Yilan. But because of VEX, I’ve met all kinds of people. One time at a tournament in Taipei American School, I got to connect with students from different regions — it was a great experience."
I agree with Andrew's response. Participating in VEX allows you to meet people from different backgrounds, different cities, and with different ideas, and this is the biggest thing VEX can bring you. It doesn't matter if you are an introvert or an extrovert; you will definitely make friends along the way. You might start by connecting with people from your lab, club, or city, but eventually you'll meet other teams during competitions. I would definitely recommend you to devout time to make connections with people during competitions aside from competing.
That's it for this interview. I really hope this helps you on your VEX journey by understanding what VEX can bring to you. I am really thankful to Andrew for partaking in this interview and sharing his experience over the years.
This is IntroVex, your robotics guide to VEXcellence. See you in the next article or video!!
