Robotics competition brings top student teams to Hamilton

For over 30 years, high school students across Ontario and the United States have battled for the best bots. And today, the FIRST Robotics Canada competition landed at McMaster University in Hamilton. Top prize is bragging rights but there’s a lot more at stake.

International recognition is nice but there are scouts observing, looking to learn from the best. And top competitors often have their choice of scholarships towards a career in engineering.

Over the course of this weekend, 30 high school teams from across Ontario and the U.S. will be showing off their robotics skills – many of whom have already chosen a career in engineering.

This is the goal of FIRST Robotics Canada, to create a culture where science, tech, engineering and math are celebrated and pursued.

“Imagine we celebrated engineers like we celebrate athletes and entertainers,” said William Neal, program manager for FIRST Robotics Canada.

“All around the world they’ll be watching this event and they are taking account of what the robots here are doing, and they’ll incorporate the lessons learned into their own robots,” said Neal.

There are a few teams from Hamilton this year. Today CHCH News followed the team from Orchard Park Secondary School in Stoney Creek.

They have a pit outside the competition to tweak their machines and prepare for battle. Then it’s off to the arena to showcase months of work and the over $20,000 it cost to build their metallic competitors.

WATCH MORE: Hamilton gears up for new professional hockey team in the city

“At the beginning of every year in January we get given a game for our team to build a robot and compete,” said Stephan Zelisko from the Orchard Park robotics team.

This year the game centered around fuel.

In the first 20 seconds, humans are not involved and the robots do their thing. The rest of the two minutes and 30 seconds are played on controllers by the humans.

“It’s a mad scramble to the centre to see who gets the undisturbed collection of fuel, as it’s called, and then as many balls are fired into the hopper as possible,” said Neal.

“On our team it’s actually pretty equal. So I joined because of my friends on the team which are all females,” said Georgia Watts from the Orchard Park robotics team.

Watts admits this was a “see her, be her” moment for her. She wasn’t really interested in science until she joined the Orchard Park robotics team.

Now she sees a new side of everything. Her teammate Maple Tay agrees, choosing to pursue mechanical and aerospace engineering.

“There’s really no advantage for men or women because we actually have a lot of women mentors, too. So it made it super inclusive and very welcoming,” said Tay.

The competition runs until Sunday when points earned over the weekend will be tallied and a winner will be chosen.

But with the exposure alone, they’ve already won with all the experience and the chance to further their careers.

WATCH MORE: Stoney Creek student attempts breaking Guinness World Record on World Pi Day