Cart

The VEX V5 Competitive Robotics team is where students learn to design, build, and program robots in a collaborative, high-stakes environment. Guided by their coach Duncan McDonald, students take on the official VEX V5 game challenge (currently Push Back for the 2025-26 season), exploring mechanical design, electronics, sensors, and both block-based and text-based coding. Through building, testing, iterating, and documenting their work, they develop creativity, resilience, and real engineering chops.

Our coaching philosophy mirrors VEX’s student-centered model; students drive their learning while the coach mentors by asking guiding questions rather than giving direct answers. Team members own their designs, learn to think critically, and build confidence as independent problem-solvers.

Teamwork is at the heart of every match. Students work together to strategy-plan, build, test, and refine their robots, communicate their ideas, and respect different perspectives. They practice professionalism through robot design, engineering notebooks, interviews with judges in the “pit” area, and by presenting their solutions.

Families should expect to attend official tournaments, with travel required to local and regional events throughout the year. These competitions are where students put their hard work to the test, and dedicated teams aim to advance from local tournaments to provincial championships and, for top performers, the international stage.

UTG Academy fields a competitive team in the 2025 to 2026 global challenge, Mix & Match, within the VEX IQ Robotics Competition. Students work side by side to design, build, and program robots that stack, connect, and score game elements on the official competition field. Every student takes on meaningful responsibilities that contribute to team success.

Families should expect regular tournament attendance on a roughly monthly schedule, with travel to local and regional venues throughout the season. Events include teamwork matches and skills challenges, with strong teams progressing toward provincial championships and the VEX Robotics World Championship.

What students learn:
Mechanical engineering for building efficient, competition-ready robots
Coding in VEXcode Blocks and Python for autonomous routines and match control
Using sensors for precision driving, alignment, and scoring
Teamwork, leadership, and game strategy in a competitive environment

How we coach:
• Student-centered mentoring where the coach guides with questions rather than giving answers
• Clear team roles that rotate and develop skills over time, including drivers, programmers, designers, and scouts
• Emphasis on testing, iteration, documentation, and professional conduct at events

Team goals:
• Develop a robot that excels in teamwork matches and autonomous skills runs
• Train as a coordinated unit with defined roles and practice plans
• Build resilience, adaptability, and confidence through real competition pressure

UTG is a premium robotics program focused on developing young engineering talent while preparing students to compete in VEX Robotics tournaments. UTG Academy has produced World Robotics Champions who continued into post-secondary pathways and VEX U (VEX University) competition.

Students code their own 2D top-down role-playing game inspired by classic adventures like Zelda, using Python and PixelPAD. They'll design interactive worlds featuring characters, collectible items, and engaging challenges. By implementing concepts such as character interactions, inventory systems, and basic game logic, students expand their coding skills through creative storytelling and interactive gameplay. Basic familiarity with computers and keyboarding necessary; no prior coding experience required.

AP Computer Science Prep Part 2 builds on the foundational Java skills developed in Part 1 and is designed to further prepare students for advanced high school or university-level computer science courses. Students deepen their understanding of object-oriented programming by exploring key topics such as array lists (including traversal, searching, and sorting), two-dimensional arrays, inheritance, and polymorphism. These advanced concepts are reinforced through two applied projects: a memory-matching card game and a text-based implementation of "21". The course emphasizes abstraction, code organization, and reusability, reflecting the structure and expectations of the AP Computer Science A curriculum.

Prior experience with Java programming is required.