Next year I will be going to University at the Technical University of Munich, and I had wanted to start a VexU team there. However, I do not know enough people in that area to join a team with me, and atm I am struggling with the logistics of even paying for the expenses. Only building one robot is a blessing, but It’s still a lot of startup money for more than just the initial part price.
Shipping into Germany is expensive, i’ll be paying massive shipping charges on vex parts, American or Chinese built sensors, not to mention the field.
My second issue is with regional tournaments: There are none. I have the possibility to maybe take a train to Spain or fly to the USA over Christmas break to do skills, but I don’t see how easily I can logistically start a VexU team in a country that has no VexU teams…
I’ve participated in vex. My issue is starting it period. Traveling internationally a lot is expensive; there needs to be an option with Vex or the RECF itself…
It would be a lot cheaper to ship from the UK than the US. As far as I know there is only one VEXU team in the UK next year. We have been told if there are no others we will probably just auto-qualify for worlds.
Not necessarily if there is no teams in Germany there is most likely no qualifiers in Germany so you would need to attend an other qualifier in a different country.
This is because in Germany, clubs tend to run over an organization within the region/ town/ municipality, and not so much over the school. This has its benefits, but its main detriment is that it is slow to open clubs based on something not prevalent in Europe. Vex has grown mainly because schools have pushed it, and garners much influence from PLTW schools, as well as scientifically directioned schools with dedicated programs.
This is true we had foreign exchange student who was from Germany he said that there was only one team that he knew of in Germany and was run in a town by many schools.
Alex - In Vex U every country has their own qualification criteria for Worlds due to the limited number of teams in Vex U. Only recently as of the 2014-2015 season were U.S. required to qualify for Worlds as there were so few of us.
My suggestion would be to reach out to Marc Courture at RECF who is in charge of Vex U. He will be able to help answer any questions you have and possibly connect you with other students who have expressed interest in starting a team around you. If you have any questions on cost for starting a Vex U team please feel free to reach out to me as I am the primary founder of the team here at Purdue.
Like other people have said contact the RECF regional manager who is Mike Martus he is in charge of VEX in Germany. His email is below. [email protected]