A group of robot-loving students from Archbishop Jordan High School is heading to the United States ranked as one of the top three per cent of teams in the world.
The VEX World Championships are taking place in Louisville, Ky. this year and six students from Sherwood Park, Alta. are ready to show the competition their labour of love.
So far this year, their robot has excelled at the VEX game Starstruck – earning them first place in a tournament at NAIT, as well as the provincial championship.
The robots are designed to pick up large jacks and cubes and toss them onto the opponents’ side of the court, over a fence.
First the robots work autonomously, based on computer programming and then, after 15 seconds, they’re remote-controlled.
The team who ends the round with the least objects in their court wins.
“It is a class,” explained teacher Scott Crosbie. “But the dedication it requires to be successful at it requires hundreds of hours outside class time.”
Watch below: After winning provincials, a six-student team from Archbishop Jordan High School in Sherwood Park, Alta. is heading to the world championships in Kentucky. Here’s a look at their robot in action.
The students say it’s all worth it though.
“We’re in here on weekends, after school, lunches, spares. On our spring break now, we’re here,” Grade 12 student Braydon Nelson-Gellhaus said.
“I’ve always liked mechanical things and how they worked. This was a good way to get into that so I chose this course.”
Each of the 16,000 VEX teams around the world start with the same pieces and through trial and error and many prototypes, they end up with a competition robot.
“That starts off as just a pile of motors and wheels and aluminium,” Crosbie said.
Since the first competition in November, students have been learning about problem solving and how computers work.
“Almost everything from that robot got disassembled and remade from that. I couldn’t say anything from this one is similar,” Nelson-Gellahus explained.
The team leaves for Louisville, Ky. on April 18 and plans to return five days later.
Worlds are sponsored by Google and NASA, potential future employers for these bright, young minds.
“Based on our economy lately, we’ve seen the importance of technical innovation and not having just all your eggs in one basket in terms of the economy,” Crosbie said. “Programming, automation, it’s the future as far as industry goes. So I think the skills they learn here are really important.”
He said many of his former students have gone on to pursue post-secondary classes in fields like engineering or computer science.
“I’m conditionally accepted to NAIT for computer engineering so this definitely influenced that a lot,” Grade 12 student Andrew Komick said.
The team has set a goal of trying to make the finals in Louisville.
“We’ve seen a lot of the competition on YouTube and everything and I think we’re going to do alright this year,” Komick said.
They’ll be joined by two other teams from Alberta, both from Calgary.
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