Robotics competition returns to Georgian College

Georgian College was the site of the First Robotics district qualifying event on Saturday.

The two-day event included over two dozen teams from high schools across Ontario and allowed students to build and program robots, followed by a competition.

"It is part of the constructive force that's going to keep society going. We have secondary school-level students achieving in two months what most people would find quite impressive," said William Neal, the First Robotics Competition Manager.

The 27 teams and close to one thousand students had two months to build a 125-pound robot that could launch as many foam rings as possible into a targeted goal before completing a chin-up as time expires.

"The future is moving toward automation; if we could teach these kids how to automate robots and build these complicated systems at a young age, think about the endless possibilities they're going to have in the future," said Callum Keeling, a Georgian College student and a mentor for the Barrie-based Cybears team.

Keeling estimates that each high school student has dedicated 20 hours per week to helping prepare their robot for the competition in the last three months.

"The energy and skill sets of these young teenagers are unbelievable and very inspiring; they have to have mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer programming skills," said Marjorie Cook, Georgian College's engineering and environmental studies business manager.

This weekend's competition is the third of five qualifying events, with a spot in the provincials on the line, however the young engineers are also putting themselves on the radars of prospective employers.

"I hear all the time that company workers say can you send us more students like this, I first met a CEO last year in the United States; he only hires graduates from the event," said Neal.

The Top 100 teams across the five first robotics competitions will qualify for the Ontario provincials, while the top 23 teams from provincials will then qualify for the world competition, which takes place in Houston in April, 2024.