Students at Dewitt Rd., Schlegel Rd. and State Rd. elementary schools got a chance to come face-to-face with an actual rolling, climbing and basketball-playing robot last week when high schoolers from the Webster SparX Robotics Team visited the schools to demonstrate their robot, which they’ve named “Reboot.”
Along with getting to drive the robot ans asking the SparX team members questions, the students learned some interesting tidbits about the club and the robot including,
- Students from Webster Schroeder and Webster Thomas built the robot in six weeks.
- Reboot weighs 115 pounds.
- It can shoot balls over 10 feet in the air and exceed 30 mph.
- It uses XBOX controllers to control it.
- Students designed the robot using CAD technology.
- SparX competed at the Finger Lakes Regional in March at RIT and the Tech Valley Regional at MVP Arena in Albany in April, and had very strong showings in both.
The 2026 competition season featured an archaeology/history-inspired theme called REBUILT. The game required alliances of three robots to race around the field, collect foam balls called “Fuel,” and launch them into large goals known as “Hubs.” To get maximum points, the robots had to pull themselves up and hang from different vertical levels of a ladder-like tower before the buzzer sounded.
So, basically, Reboot had to quickly scoop up foam balls, aim and launch them into a shifting goal, and then lift its entire 100+ pound frame up a metal tower. Pretty impressive.
The demonstrations will continue this coming week at Klem North and Klem South elementary schools and Willink Middle School.
For more information about joining, mentoring, or sponsoring the Webster robotics team, visit gosparx.org or contact David_Schenk@webstercsd.org and Keith_Karnisky@webstercsd.org.
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(posted 6/21/2026)
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