Local Robotics Teams Qualify For World Championship After Maryland State Competition

HOLLYWOOD, Md. — Two Southern Maryland robotics teams are preparing to take their skills to the global stage after strong performances at the 2026 Maryland VEX IQ Robotics Competition State Championship.

Teams The Hive Mind (836A) and The ZomBees (836B), part of the local nonprofit growingSTEMS, qualified for the VEX Robotics World Championship following the state competition held Feb. 28. The international competition will take place April 28–30 in St. Louis and will feature 421 teams from more than 50 countries.

The teams are among four from growingSTEMS that competed at the Maryland championship, showcasing months of engineering work, programming and strategic planning.

The Hive Mind finished third in the Skills and Autonomous Driving category and earned the Innovate Award, which recognizes teams with a well-documented design process leading to a unique robot design. The ZomBees placed fourth in Skills and Autonomous competition, advanced to the final qualifying matches and finished sixth overall.

Students spent the season refining robot design, calculating gear ratios, programming with Python and developing autonomous driving strategies. This year’s competition required robots to stack multi-colored pins into matching goals on the field, forcing teams to adapt their strategies quickly when things did not go according to plan.

Mentor Jacob Craver said watching the students grow through the process has been especially rewarding.

“I’ve loved mentoring these students and watching them develop critical-thinking skills to tackle complex problems. I’m proud of the drive and dedication that earned them the Innovate Award at the state competition and ultimately their invitation to Worlds,” Craver said.

The path to the championship was not without challenges. During the state competition, The Hive Mind encountered a last-minute inspection issue when a measuring component used for autonomous programming risked exceeding the 11-inch width requirement. The team quickly redesigned the piece to pass inspection.

The Hive Mind faced their own obstacle when their AI vision sensor struggled to respond under the lighting conditions on the skills field. Team members quickly reprogrammed the robot and successfully completed the autonomous skills run.

For many Hive Mind members, the world championship will mark their final VEX IQ competition before transitioning to high school robotics.

Coach Adrianne Cooper said the team exceeded expectations this season.

“I am so proud of this team. All I asked of them this year was to try for excellence and win an award. This year they stepped up to the challenge and didn’t win just one award but won two! I’m so proud of their hard work and growth as a team,” Cooper said.

Meet The ZomBees

Meet The Hive Mind

Student Reflections

Students from The Hive Mind shared their reflections on obstacles, communication, as well as pride and excitement.

Brayden Auld, 12, said the season reinforced an important lesson about perseverance.

“I learned that it is important to bounce back in the face of failure. It’s important to keep trying, otherwise we would not succeed,” Auld said.

Ryan Auld, 14, said the program helped him develop valuable communication and engineering skills.

“I learned more effective communication, documentation and design processes. I can use that next year when I plan to join the growingSTEMS high school FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), which will give plenty of opportunities to learn more. I can apply these skills to my college and future career,” Ryan Auld said.

For team coder Jaxson Cooper, returning to the world stage is a chance to showcase the team’s progress.

“Going to the VEX IQ World Championships again this year is a great opportunity for us to show off our skills scores and highlight how far we’ve come in our coding,” Cooper said.

Abraham Luc said returning to the world championship with teammates he met through robotics is especially meaningful.

“Going to the VEX IQ World Championships again with my teams gives me a sense of pride and accomplishment. Knowing that I accomplished such great heights with peers I met last year makes me excited to see what we will learn next,” Luc said.

TJ Ward said teamwork and creative problem-solving were key to the team’s success.

“I learned that with creative problem-solving as a team, we can design a robot that is more competitive at the World Championships and that together we can create something greater than we could do alone,” Ward said.

Kolten Wills, who has spent five years working toward the goal of competing at Worlds, said the experience will help shape his future.

“Advancing to the VEX IQ World Championship means getting more opportunities in high school and college to go to other robotics events. I want to be an engineer, these experiences will help progress my skills, knowledge and experience in engineering,” Wills said.

Students from The ZomBees team also shared their excitement about the upcoming competition.

“Going to Worlds is the perfect way to end my last year of VEX IQ. It’s really fun to see how far we’ve come since the beginning of the season and how we’ve grown as a team,” said Joey Chapelle, 14.

Ashton Sibley, 12, said the season strengthened both his engineering and teamwork skills.

“I have learned stronger building designs, teamwork and communication skills. I am very excited about competing at Worlds,” Sibley said.

Devin Sibley, 11, said the opportunity to compete on the global stage feels like a major accomplishment.

“First I feel I have achieved a lot this year, second I am glad that my mom coaches us and I feel really good about Worlds and hope to have a lot of fun,” Sibley said.

Marston Smith said robotics helped him learn how to coordinate strategies with teammates.

“I’ve learned a lot about teamwork, specifically how to plan and coordinate different strategies with other players. I have also learned a lot about coding,” Smith said.

Tucker Smith said the international aspect of the competition is especially exciting.

“This is my 4th year doing VEX and we have never qualified for Worlds. I’m excited to go and meet kids from other countries,” Smith said.

Eva White said patience and teamwork were essential lessons this season.

“I have learned that you cannot get stressed when you’re doing anything and you need lots of patience. I have also learned how to plan driving strategies from teamwork driving with other teams (pretty quickly!),” White said.

Coaches And Mentors Reflect

Coaches and mentors said the teams’ success reflects years of dedication, learning and teamwork.

ZomBees co-coach Frank van Vliet said the students demonstrated resilience early in the season.

“I really enjoyed watching the team learn and grow together. What particularly stood out for me was in our first competition, when things didn’t go well, the group showed resilience rather than disappointment and used the experience to enhance the robot and their driving skills for the next event,” van Vliet said.

Mentor Zoe Lambert praised the students’ ability to adapt to challenges throughout the season.

“This year, our students were pushed to adapt quickly, fail gracefully and keep moving forward. They had to learn new systems and came up with innovative solutions to this year’s challenge. They have earned their way to the World Championships and I couldn’t be prouder of how they have grown this year,” Lambert said.

Programming mentor Cody Graham said the students demonstrated remarkable dedication while learning complex engineering concepts.

“These students have shown dedication to learning, and demonstrated growth in their engineering and programming skills through VEX IQ. I am excited for them to continue into our FRC program!” Graham said.

Longtime mentor Shannon McPartland reflected on the growth of the program over the past several years.

“Over the five years of VEX IQ it has always been amazing to see the progress year to year, high average scores across our teams and more teams consistently making it to state championships. For such a massive jump to two teams being invited to Worlds is amazing and truly shows how much hard work our students have put into this program. I’m very proud of the dedication and perseverance these two teams have shown this year,” McPartland said.

The teams now turn their focus toward preparing for the world championship, where they will compete against top robotics teams from around the globe.

To help cover travel expenses for the championship, growingSTEMS is seeking to raise $30,000 through donations and community sponsorships.

Since growingSTEMS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 46-0573936), all donations are 100% tax-deductible.

Questions about how to donate or receipt requests can be directed to ankoch@growingstems.org.

Founded in 2011, growingSTEMS offers year-round robotics programs for students beginning in third grade and also supports high school competitors through its FIRST Robotics Competition team, the RoboBees. The organization aims to advance STEM education and workforce development across Southern Maryland.

More information about the organization and its programs is available at growingstems.org.

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