Next up in our look at teams participating in our VEX IQ & VRC events, it’s time to meet VEX Robotics Team Jelly # 2733J, and they’ve got a great story to tell.
VEX Robotics Team Jelly 2733J (@Jelly2733j) was started in the fall of 2020 in honor of Mattias grandpa’ George who was a man with visions and an amazing engineering mind. Mattias has loved VEX since he was introduced to the program in 4th grade. In 2020, when his High School was only doing virtual robotics meets and not building a new robot Team Jelly was formed out of Mattias’ living room. Initially it was a 1 person team, but as the years have passed it has grown and other members have joined. For the 22/23 Spin Up season the team consists of 4 students, Mattias (Senior), William (Junior), Adam (Sophomore) and CiCi (Freshman) and they are ready to rock.
Check out their robot reveal video below:
Fun Fact: Team Jelly’s color was red in 20/21, because Mattias likes strawberry Jelly. In 21/22 he was outvoted by the rest of the team who like Grape Jelly so the color changed to Purple. This year they are going all black for some of the events to honor their favorite retired VRC Team Blackout.
Our Greatest Sponsor was Grandpa’ George who passed away in February of 2020 at the age of 93, after
a long and eventful life. He had a brilliant mind and for years he fine tuned and manufactured a product called Hydrocap which was developed in 1948 by Dr. Palmer H. Craig, in the Physics Department at the University of Miami for the U.S. Navy.
Hydrocap has been used by individuals, institutions, businesses and government agencies worldwide in thousands of applications, from solar powered systems and electric vehicles to submarines. He also created a scuba scooter used by the US Navy as well as worked on an underwater house. And he was an avid offshore racer. Grandpa’ George briefly stayed with us in 2019 and was fascinated by Mattias’ 3D printer and both he and his sisters’ VEX IQ robots. And grandpa’ loved jelly.
This season Team Jelly is also sponsored by SOLIDWORKS. Follow the team on Instagram @jelly2733J.
You can see Team Jelly competing in this year’s ROBOTICON Spin Up tournament on October 16 at the west end of the mall near AMRoC Fab Lab. Throw on some purple and come cheer them on!
VEX Robotics Competition Spin Up is played on a 12’x12’ square field. Two (2) Alliances – one (1) “red” and one (1) “blue” – composed of two (2) Teams each, compete in matches consisting of a fifteen (15) second Autonomous Period, followed by a one minute and forty-five second (1:45) Driver Controlled Period.
The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing Alliance by Scoring Discs in Goals, Owning Rollers, and Covering field tiles at the end of the Match.
There will also be an Innovation Fair at ROBOTICON for for all to enjoy and opportunities to learn how to get involved in or start teams in your school or community. ROBOTICON Tampa Bay is free and open to the public, and can be enjoyed from 11am to 5pm each competition day. Visit our event page to see the schedule for our Manufacturing Month event, which will feature different competitive robotics programs each weekend in October!