‘Sport of the mind’: Students test skills in robotics competition

A provincial student robot competition took place in Windsor over the weekend.

Eager to show their skills, hundreds of students from across Ontario faced off Saturday in the finale of the 11th annual Windsor Essex Great Lakes FIRST Robotics Competition.

Over multiple days, 35 teams, including 10 from Windsor-Essex schools, tested their robotic creations in competitions at the St. Denis Athletic & Community Centre.

Jackson Vickerd, a Grade 11 student at Belle River District High School, was in his third-year competing.

“So, you know, it’s working under stress, working as a team, and a lot of the time, you know, being a leader and being able to guide the people around you to work at the fastest pace they can,” Vickerd said in between competitions.

Each round, six teams are divided into two sides. This year, their goal was to control their robots to get a ball into a net.

Robots were also tested on their ability to climb for extra points.

“I love competition. I’m very competitive. So, you know, coming here and winning is one of the best things in the world,” he said.

In between matches, teams have just minutes to diagnose the flaws in their contraptions and plot a solution before they return to action.

About a month before the competition, Vickerd and fellow members of the Belle River Boltheads built a robot they felt wasn’t up to snuff. Rather than continuing forward, they scrapped their initial plan and built a stronger robot.

After school, Vickerd is considering a career in the automotive or aerospace industries – he hopes his experience in this competition will help him grow.

“You learn so many lessons where, you know, you’re building, and you’re troubleshooting or going to the competition and, you know, having fun,” he said.

Through the competition and the preparation in the lead up to the event, the goal is to get students engaged in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

For Larry Koscielski, the chair of Windsor-Essex First Robotics, the annual event is an example of a “sport of the mind.”

“For them to understand that they wrote a few lines of code and the robot did something specific because they told it to, and that’s like a spark,” Koscielski explained. “Honestly, it’s like nuclear fission.”

Walking through tents pitched for each team, Koscielski said there are 35 solutions to the same problem.

The event features industry representatives serving as volunteers, judges, and mentors.

Koscielski, vice president of Process & Technology Development at CenterLine in Windsor, said that many students go on to apply the skills they have learned to find jobs after completing their post-secondary education.

“We find the kids are different and they’re like, they’re job-ready day one,” he added.

The winner of the competition will now move on to provincials in Niagara next weekend.