For more than 30 years, high school students from Ontario and the United States have been competing to build the best robots. Today, the FIRST Robotics Canada competition took place at Mc Master University in Hamilton. The top prize is bragging rights, but there’s much more on the line.
While international recognition is great, scouts are here watching closely to learn from these talented teams. Top performers often get scholarships that can help them pursue careers in engineering.
This weekend, 30 high school teams from Ontario and the U. S. will be displaying their robotics expertise – many of whom have already set their sights on a future in engineering.
FIRST Robotics Canada aims to foster a culture where science, technology, engineering, and math are celebrated and pursued.
“Imagine we celebrated engineers like we celebrate athletes and entertainers,” said William Neal, program manager for FIRST Robotics Canada.
“All around the world they’ll be watching this event and they are taking account of what the robots here are doing, and they’ll incorporate the lessons learned into their own robots,” said Neal.
This year, several teams from Hamilton are participating. Today CHCH News followed the team from Orchard Park Secondary School in Stoney Creek.
They have a pit outside the competition area where they can make adjustments to their machines before heading into battle. Then it’s time to show off months of hard work along with over $20,000 spent on building their robotic competitors.
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“At the beginning of every year in January we get given a game for our team to build a robot and compete,” said Stephan Zelisko from the Orchard Park robotics team.
This year’s game focused on fuel.
In the first 20 seconds, humans don’t participate while robots operate autonomously. For the remaining two minutes and 30 seconds, humans take control with controllers.
“It’s a mad scramble to the centre to see who gets the undisturbed collection of fuel, as it’s called, and then as many balls are fired into the hopper as possible,” said Neal.
“On our team it’s actually pretty equal. So I joined because of my friends on the team which are all females,” said Georgia Watts from the Orchard Park robotics team.
Watts shared that this was a “see her, be her” moment for her. She hadn’t been very interested in science until she became part of Orchard Park’s robotics team.
Now she sees things differently. Her teammate Maple Tay agrees and plans to pursue mechanical and aerospace engineering.
“There’s really no advantage for men or women because we actually have a lot of women mentors too. So it made it super inclusive and very welcoming,” said Tay.
The competition continues until Sunday when points accumulated over the weekend will be counted up to determine a winner.
But just by gaining exposure alone, they’ve already achieved success through valuable experience that could advance their careers further down the line.
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