Young minds impress at robotics competition
Local high school teams advance to Ontario championship next month
WATERLOO — Elisa Knight can explain the mechanics behind her team’s robot, and the strategy involved in the tasks it faces, with the precision of an engineer.
There’s mention of the challenges posed by a faulty gear box, and of the strategic advantage inherent in being able to lift and carry another robot. There’s also talk of the three “power ups” available to be played — levitate, force and boost.
It’s all, admittedly, somewhat confusing to the non-robotically inclined. It’s all the more impressive when you consider that Knight is in Grade 10.
The Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute student is part of a community team, about 40 to 50 members strong, fielding an entry at the annual FIRST Robotics Competition. The Ontario district event, featuring 32 teams with students from across the province, took place at the University of Waterloo on Friday and Saturday.
Late Saturday afternoon before a packed crowd, the competition winners emerged — an alliance comprised of hometown team St. David Catholic Secondary School of Waterloo, Elmira District Secondary School and a team from Strathroy that will advance to the provincial championships next month in Mississauga.
Another local team from St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School in Cambridge also competed at the event.
Teams had just six weeks in which to design and build their robot. Then, it was literally put in a bag and couldn’t be touched until just before the district competition began, explained the event’s volunteer co-ordinator, Mikaela
Corneil.
Knight and her teammates were unfazed. “We actually developed a second robot,” she said, identical to the first, so they could continue testing and make improvements that could be incorporated into their competition robot once it was out of the bag.
Facing off on a gymnasium floor ringed by hundreds of spectators, the robots competed for the chance to advance to the provincial championships, and perhaps on from there to an overall championship being dually hosted in Houston and Detroit. More than $50 million in potential scholarships are also up for grabs.
But this isn’t like those “BattleBot” contests in which teams try to smash their competition to bits. Far from it. The FIRST program, based in the United States, has actually trademarked the word “Coopertition” and the phrase “Gracious Professionalism” to describe some of its goals.
“You don’t do something to harm other robots,” explained Corneil, a fourth-year mechatronics engineering student at UW.
If one team accidentally damages another’s robot, “you send team members over to their pit to help fix it.”
The program is clearly intended to raise interest and awareness around the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“It definitely helps to direct a high school student into being more sure and confident in their university choice,” Corneil said.
But there are all kinds of other concepts at play.
Teamwork and co-operation. Mentoring new and younger teammates. Business skills and public relations, needed to develop a plan and attract donors and sponsors to offset the thousands of dollars required to build a robot and enter the competition.
“It’s not cheap to run a team,” noted Knight’s teammate Kevin McCloy, as Knight handed out a team business card complete with a link to its GoFundMe account.
There’s a social component to the endeavour, too.
“There are lots of opportunities to meet great people,” McCloy said.
For proud family members watching from the stands, it’s a chance to cheer on children, grandchildren and siblings, and marvel at what they’ve accomplished at a young age.
“You just want to watch and see what these kids are doing,” said Barbara Pratten, who, along with husband Art, was watching grandson Evan compete with his team from London. “It’s just totally amazing.”