The hard work of nearly 140 high school students from 29 schools across the province was put to the test on Thursday at the 14th annual Robot Rumble competition taking place at Saskatchewan Polytechnic.
The event featured a large-scale round robin tournament where small robots competed to toss each other out of the ring for the grand prize of a $1,500 tuition credit to a Sask Polytechnic diploma program in the Nutrien School of Mining, Manufacturing and Engineering Technologies, and $250 cash.
Isaiah Wiebe from Bethlehem Catholic High School says there are two categories: stock and modified.
“The stock robots are robots that they just hand to you. Those robots over there,” he points out, “you’ll see a whole bunch of them. That’s because they come in kits. The modified robots are stuff that we build from scratch.” Gesturing to his own robot, he added that he didn’t have a kit to build it, but instead the help of his partner, Billy Panaligan.
He says the duo were the only ones from his school to enter a modified robot into the competition. It took them about three weeks to build.
“It’s got buttons and everything on the robot, so we can easily de-bug it. We can figure out what’s wrong with the robot really quickly, which is something not a lot of robots have. I don’t know how much it’s going to win, but I know that if we lose, we’ll be able to know why we lost and probably improve from there.”
Dan Bechard, Sask. Polytech Academic Chair in the Faculty of Technology and Skilled Trade, says the event provides students with a place to display their passion for robotics, teamwork and collaboration skills, as well as a competitive atmosphere.
“Some of them are coming from robotics clubs, some have robotics classes, but I think it’s extracurricular to get students who don’t normally go on a team…an opportunity to be part of that culture and represent their school.”
He adds that the technology sector is always growing, and one day it will require the expertise of these young students.
Billy Panaligan and Isaiah Wiebe
