The third annual robotics competition took place at NAIT on November 25. Hundreds of high school students from across the province took part in this competition. Each year a new engineering challenge is introduced, with this year’s challenge being called In The Zone. This challenge involved robots stacking up to 80 cones on 10 goal pylons.
Neil Wenger, the NAIT VEX regional competition director says a total of 24 teams took part on Saturday. “All of those separate disciplines that it takes to make a robotics team. We have all of those technology programs at NAIT. It gives them a chance to try one try the other and find out what would be the best one suited for them,” said Wenger.
The engineering challenge this year involved:
- VEX
- Structural components
- Motors
- Programmable controller
- Sensors
High school students used their robot making skills and the guidance of their teachers during the competition. Competitors were also given a few months to build their robots.
Neil Wenger says there are a lot of different jobs that need to be done on a team such as going over the rules and coming up with strategies. All of the teams at this year’s challenge will be coming back for the provincial competition hosted by NAIT. Three winning teams from the provincial competition will be advancing to the world competition.
The Alberta Provincial competition is taking place February 19. The registration deadline for the provincials is January 30.
