Three Students and Siblings from Montgomery Public School Win Regional VEX IQ Tournament | school

Three MPS students placed No. 1 in the regional VEX IQ tournament held at Bankhead Middle School last Saturday. Abraham Yang (Grade 5/Baldwin), Johanna Yang (Grade 4/Forest Avenue) and Elijah Yang (Grade 2/Forest Avenue) – are siblings. They formed a VEX IQ competition team, Penguin Robotics (VIQC 1025A), and won three major awards – Robot Skills Champion Award (highest robot driving/programming scores), Teamwork Champion Award (highest final tournament scores ) and Excellence Award (VEX Robotics’ most prestigious award based on overall performance, dedication and engineering workbook). With that, they earned a ticket to the state championship to be held at Auburn University on February 19.

“I am so grateful for this opportunity and immensely proud of Abraham, Johanna and Elijah. There was a setback but they persevered, kept going and worked hard to get this far,” said their coach and father, Soo Seok Yang.

“Seeing these penguins working together and training enthusiastically every night was in itself a joy and an encouragement.”

Penguin Robotics shone throughout the day of the tournament not only in its performance but also in its behavior. They were the only team able to bring the training ground and were quick to share it with other teams who wanted to practice before entering competitive matches. Penguin Robotics (VIQC 1025A) is currently ranked #1 in the entire state of Alabama with a total skill score of 91 and its global position is 115 out of 2,090 registered college teams worldwide. Abraham first joined robotics at Bear Elementary as a 5th grader and aspires to become an aerospace engineer or an astronaut.