Robotics teams from Algoma District heading to provincials

Eleven robotics teams from the Algoma District – representing eight different schools – will be traveling to Mississauga next month to take part in the VEX robotics provincial championships.

Robotics teacher Jonathan Budau told ADSB trustees during Tuesday night’s board meeting that he’ll be taking the bus to the provincials with the elementary and secondary school students.

“Out of those 11 teams, eight of them are ADSB teams,” Budau said. “That’s the largest number of teams we’ve ever had qualify to the provincial level.”

“I’m crossing fingers and hoping we may have yet again more success, and with luck maybe more representation at the world level.”

One team from the Algoma District – the Martel brothers from Missanabie, a small village north of Wawa – will also be heading to the provincials, ranked fourth in all of Canada for the skills component of the robotics events.

Lone Wolf Robotics, a robotics team that is comprised of students from ADSB and the Catholic school board, will be heading to the world championships for its second appearance in two years.

While the robotics program began in 2001, it’s just the fifth year that ADSB has been involved in VEX VRC robotics, which has more than 250 teams competing throughout Ontario.

Budau says that the popularity of robotics is “exploding” throughout the school board and the Algoma District in general.   

Earlier this year, the VEX IQ championships at Sault College was the largest event of its kind in Canada, with the ADSB registering more teams than it has schools.

“Even in southern Ontario, they don’t have the number of teams competing at the qualifying level that we have,” Budau said. “Only the provincial championships had more teams than we had at our event.”

Amanda Hay, who coaches two secondary school robotics squads at Korah, told trustees at the board meeting that if anything, the only thing that’s lacking with the robotics program is a lack of competition within her school leading up to regional events, noting that practice is necessary in order to remain competitive.

Hay says she’s encouraged by the new crop of elementary students who are currently participating.  

“I’m excited, because we’ve got to grab those kids right when they get into grade nine, so we can continue to build our secondary level, because two teams is not enough for me either,” said Hay. “I want to be able to build it, so we can compete, even within our school.”

“They’re using robotics to pursue their interest in computer science, which is an amazing field to get into in terms of the jobs that they can acquire.” Hay continued. “These are great assets and great skills that they’re learning through this.”

Budau says he’s looking forward to the upcoming provincial championships, and is encouraged by the “positive, exciting, vibrant program” that’s been built up locally over the years.

“We have some other very strong teams in the region, we’re representing well,” said Budau. “We’re certainly competitive, so it’s not like we go down to southern Ontario and get taught how to do robotics.”

“We’re actually doing the teaching this time.”