The Goulburn High Robotics Team are just $4000 short of funding their trip to Dallas, Texas to compete in the 2022 VEX IQ Robotics World Championships.
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The team received a boost to their funding after Goulburn-Mulwaree Council doubled their proposed financial assistance to $5000 during Tuesday night's meeting.
The cost for the five students to travel to Dallas will be at least $31,000 in total.
So far teachers, students, parents and the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer have donated to help the students fund their trip.
With the Robotics World Championships held from May 8 to 10, the team has had little time to fundraise.
Goulburn High School robotics teacher Katherine Hyland said the team would be approaching local businesses that may be able to help relieve the financial burden from students.
"We're trying not to add more costs for the students who have worked so hard to get here," Ms Hyland said.
"It wasn't a fluke that led them to the Championships, it was hard work.
"The students have given up their time after school and during the school holidays to work on their robot.
"It's an enormous amount of work and they did it all without knowing whether they would even make it to the Nationals in Adelaide due to the impact of COVID-19."
Fortunately, the team was able to travel to Adelaide at the start of March to compete in the National VEXIQ Robotics Competition.
They performed extremely well at Nationals, receiving the Design Award. This distinction resulted in them qualifying as one of just six teams to represent Australia in the largest educational robotics competition internationally.
"They're one of six but they're also the only NSW public school going to the World Championships and the only regional/rural school," Ms Hyland said.
"They're quite a unique team and have mainly been up against private schools which are generally better funded."
The robotics competition requires students to build and programme a robot that can achieve a multitude of tasks. They are also required to document all design work and design modifications in an engineering book.
The team had an exceptionally impressive engineering book that was presented as an example to other teams during the Nationals.
"It was shown to other teams and judges for its quality and cohesion," Ms Hyland said.
"I was really chuffed about that."
The team has already qualified through the first round of the World Championships via Zoom, where they were judged by an international panel.
"So they're already in the top 15 per cent of competitors, which is really amazing," Ms Hyland said.
The next round will be face to face provided the team makes it to Dallas, Texas.
Ms Hyland said the students were extremely thankful for the community support so far.
"Not just for the money but it's also been really lovely to have Goulburn locals be so proud of the team," she said.
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