Glenbrook South’s VEX Robotics teams 38535A (TitanTron) and 38535B (BurgerBot) earned the title of Tournament Champions at the regional competition that South hosted on Oct. 25. TitanTron also earned the award for Robot Skills Champion. TitanTron is led by senior Matthew Yam and supported by seniors Aaron Wilk, Jimmy Tsonis, Phoebe Kim, and junior Kenji Leoquinco. BurgerBot is led by senior Phillip Yong and supported by seniors Parker Hammer, Ethan Pollack, Austin Rudd, Kasey Kissner, and Dyland Racke. Both teams qualified for the state competition later this year.
Teams of Glenbrook South engineering students arrived at school early morning to prepare their hand-built robots for battle. South’s VEX Engineering Club hosted their own tournament Saturday, Oct. 25 to put their robots to the test.
Justin Zummo, engineering teacher and VEX Robotics sponsor, founded South’s first VEX Robotics team in 2016. Students compete in regional and state qualifiers throughout the school year and some lucky teams ultimately qualify for the VEX World Championships. Last year, South sent three teams to state championships and two teams to VEX Worlds, and they are hopeful for an equally successful season this year, Zummo said.
“In the last two years, I’ve got a really great group of students who have gone above and beyond anything that I ever thought was possible for us,” said Zummo. The competition was the first of five regional tournaments that South’s team will compete in this year. Each tournament includes more than 16 schools, ultimately sending two winning teams to state.
Each team is made of three members. Typically, each member takes on the role of programmer, driver, and builder, but these positions are often flexible and shift throughout the year. After spending two years as a programmer, Caspar Chen, Glenbrook South senior and competitor, felt ready to move into building. He feels like the swap has helped him develop both as an engineer and as a teammate.
“[I’ve learned] communication, collaboration, because we’re on a tight schedule and everyone has their own roles,” Chen said. “Well, we spend a lot of time on the weekends, too. We go to each other’s houses and also, we like to stay late in the Makerspace to work on the robot.”
The Makerspace, where South’s VEX tournaments take place, is the lab classroom available to South’s engineering and architecture students. Prior to the competition, students spend upwards of 10 hours a week there, using everything from computer programming software to power tools in order to perfect their robot to play this year’s game. Each year, a different game is introduced to students world-wide. The 2025-2026 game is called “Push Back” and requires robots to gather colored balls from around a 6-ft. by 8-ft. arena. Although there is robot-to-robot interaction, the intention is not to destroy other robots, but instead focus on winning points for their team.
One unique challenge that VEX Robotics presents for its participants is its combination of both technical and creative skills, Chen said. “Last year I only did programming and when I had an interview I got really technical, but the judges really didn’t like that,” Chen said. “So I think what I learned was that I need to make it more understandable and more accessible, not trying to get too technical.”
While many may think that building robots is primarily a mechanical process, judges also place high value in outside-the-box thinking and solutions, Kendrick Lee, former Glenbrook South VEX competitor and event volunteer manager, said.
“I’d like to say that robotics is both an art and also very technical as well,” Lee said. “The objective is the same, [but] the approaches are going to be different for every team. So you have a lot of creativity in terms of how you find these approaches and what’s the best possible outcome.”
Above all, the most important aspects of VEX to many students is the community that it fosters through the students involved and the growth in team leadership skills, Matthew Yam, Glenbrook South senior and team captain said.
“When I was a sophomore, everyone was kind of confused and didn’t know what to do, and there was really no guidance on how to move forward,” Yam said. “Now that I’m a senior and a team captain, I’ve definitely seen that leadership grow.”
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