Teams from high schools across the province will compete in the FIRST Robotics competition at the Toldo Lancer Centre April 9 to 11 (SARA ELLIOTT/University of Windsor)
By Kate Hargreaves
Thirty-five high school teams from across the province will converge at the University of Windsor’s Toldo Lancer Centre April 9 to 11 to put their teamwork, leadership and innovation to the test at the Windsor Essex Great Lakes District’s FIRST Robotics Competition.
Robots will compete head-to-head, showcasing student engineering prowess, creative problem-solving and strategy in front of stands full of cheering fans.
"FIRST Robotics gives students a genuine taste of what engineering and science look like in practice — problem-solving under pressure, working in teams and building something that actually works,” said Dr. Bill Van Heyst, Dean of UWindsor’s Faculty of Engineering.
“The skills and confidence students develop through this program are exactly what carries them forward into post-secondary STEM studies and beyond. The University of Windsor is proud to support that experience and to welcome these teams to our campus."
In addition to hosting the competition, the University of Windsor supports FIRST Robotics participants through scholarships for incoming UWindsor students in Science, Engineering or Business as well as additional scholarship opportunities from the School of Computer Science.
"It's a pleasure to receive so many outstanding high school students engaged with the FIRST Robotics competition here at UWindsor,” said Dr. Cláudio Verani, Dean of the Faculty of Science.
“This is a great way to welcome them and showcase the opportunities they will have in Science as well as in Engineering — the experiential learning, the world-class research and the preparation for their future careers — when they enrol at UWindsor."
With teams from as far as Kincardine and King City, the stakes for this weekend’s event are high with results helping to determine which teams go on to compete in the Provincial Championship.
Locally, Lasalle will be represented by St. Thomas of Villanova Cathoic Secondary School’s WiredCats and Sandwich Secondary’s Sabre Bytes with both St. Anne Catholic High School's Saints Bot and Belle River District High School’s Boltheads competing from the Belle River area.
Windsor community-based teams Tidal Shift and Amazon Warriors will also be competing alongside Holy Names Catholic High School's Knight Vision and the Honourale W. C. Kennedy Collegiate Kinetics.
While Thursday sees teams load in and set up their pits, the real competition starts on Friday with opening ceremonies at 11 a.m. and qualification matches all day until 7 p.m.
Saturday’s opening ceremonies start at 9 a.m. with qualifications continuing throughout the morning, playoffs in the afternoon and closing ceremonies and awards wrapping up by 7 p.m.
The family-friendly event is completely free of charge and open to the public.
For full details, visit the FIRST Robotics website.