It was a full-out “battle of the bots” at Edmonton’s Telus World of Science this weekend.
Students from grades 7 to 12 practiced their engineering skills at the First Tech Challenge.
READ MORE: Alberta students display their engineering ability with Lego
The event pitted programmed, specially-built robots against one another in a series of tasks.
“It’s a total investment of time. It’s a sport for the mind,” FIRST Robotics Western Canada regional director Phoebe Arcilla said. “It’s amazing because the kids get to challenge themselves, design the robots and build them.”
READ MORE: “It’s not the same Lego we grew up with.” Northern Alberta Lego robotics challenge takes over NAIT
The 250 students have spent months preparing for the competition. They’re challenged to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete against each other in an alliance format.
“We’ve definitely learned that cooperation is the key to everything, gracious professionalism. We’ve learned you cannot win this competition without cooperation,” competitor Etianne Connick Lecours said.
WATCH: Southern Alberta kids learn robotics and engineering
Two Alberta teams will advance to the world championships in Texas in April.