Students on a robotics team at Vincent Massey Second School in Windsor, ON, have qualified for a robotics world championship competition.
The 40-student robotics team was part of the Windsor-Essex Great Lakes Regional FIRST Robotics tournament held April 2-3, and were sponsored in part by Tregaskiss. The event featured 48 teams totalling more than 1,000 students and the Vincent Massey team qualified for the finals, advancing to the FIRST Robotics World Championship in St. Louis, MO, which will be held April 22. Tregaskiss is also sponsoring the team at this event.
The Vincent Massey robotics team includes students in grades 9 to 12.
“Our students are thrilled to have a chance to compete at such a high level after only the second year as a team,” says Sandra Chappus, mentor for the Vincent Massey Robotics Team. “The students’ talent is definitely matched by their enthusiasm and they have exceeded their own expectations going into the FIRST event. We are thankful to all of our sponsors, including Tregaskiss, for their help. Without that support, the students wouldn’t have such great opportunities.”
“The FIRST Robotics competition allows students to immerse themselves in an initiative that mirrors industry in the real world,” adds Darren Grey, director of operations at Tregaskiss. “Within a short timeframe and with a limited budget, they are tasked with designing and manufacturing a working robot to compete against teams from across the US and Canada. We consider our sponsorship an important investment in these students’ futures—they are aspiring to be the engineers, technologists and scientists of tomorrow.”
The Windsor-Essex Great Lakes Regional FIRST Robotics tournament consisted of robots competing to stack totes and recycling bins and maneuver pool noodles. Students spent six weeks building their robot and coding it for the task. The team is broken into four divisions — mechanical, electrical, business/media and programming — allowing students to focus their strengths on executing the task.
