University Gets A Whole New Kind Of Athlete

By Alice Hewitt

If the competitors were nervous, they weren’t letting on.

The Windsor Essex FIRST robotics challenge was held at the University of Windsor’s St. Denis Centre this past weekend.

Forty-two high school teams from across the Great Lakes region participated in the challenge.

The teams were split into either the red or blue alliance and played against each other in an aerial assist match.

Each match lasted less than three minutes and saw the 120-pound robots facing off to score coloured balls into the goals at each end of the pitch.

Teams were awarded additional points if those goals were scored through robot teamwork.

The all ages crowd was there to show their support for the teams and their robot competitors.

Irek Kusmierczyk, Director of Robotics and Youth Services at WETech Alliance, said the response to the event had been tremendous.

“We have a challenge here in Windsor and Essex which is that on the one hand we have a high unemployment rate for young people and on the other hand, we have a skilled trade shortage and a shortage of engineers and programmers,” said Kusmierczyk. “This program in a way directs young people onto those tracks and into those fields like science and technology and skilled trades where jobs do exist.”

Each team received a specialized kit and had six weeks to design and create a robot. After that point the robots had to be bagged and kept untouched until competitions began.

Mentor Lee Awad worked with the Sandwich Secondary students to produce the Sabre Bytes robot.

“As part of your registration there’s a kit that comes with it. It consists of motors, a processor… that sort of thing just to keep a level playing field,” said Awad.

On the last day of the event, awards were handed out and teams got to know if they had what it takes to make it to Regionals.

The Sabre Bytes was one of those teams lucky enough to make it.

According to Sabrerobotics.com, the Sabre Bytes are the only high school robotics team south of London.