VEX Robotics competition returns to the Sault (6 photos)

The Algoma District School Board held a VEX Robotics competition at Sault College Saturday, bringing together a half dozen robotics teams from five area high schools to compete for a spot in a qualifying event in Oakville, Ont. in the new year. 

Mark Carlucci, the VEX Robotics coordinator for the school board, says robotics competitions have been on hold since 2019 due to COVID-19 restrictions over the past couple of years.   

“It’s been amazing,” Carlucci said of Saturday’s event. “We’ve struggled the last couple years. We’ve tried doing things — a little bit of online work, a couple of our teams have competed online doing virtual events from their living rooms. Last year, we got started and then were shut down because of various restrictions.

“So, this year’s really exciting. All of our kids are very happy to be back; our coaches, our volunteers are all excited to be back and involved with robotics again.”

Robotics squads from Korah Collegiate and Vocational School, Superior Heights, École Notre-Dame-du-Sault, W.C. Eaket Secondary School and White Pines Collegiate and Vocational School have spent the past four months building their robots in order to take part in a new game called Spin Up. 

Volunteer judges were busy interviewing teams and inspecting the robots, assessing the best design, programming and other aspects from an engineering standpoint. 

“It’s a chance for kids to do a competitive activity that is non-sports related, so it allows them to flex some more of their mental muscles and exercise some of those programming, engineering and design skills that are really growing,” said Carlucci. “We have the push of coding in our curriculums now in the schools, so it connects back to what they’re doing in the classroom to an actual activity that connects into future careers in the various fields of engineering robotics.”