A team of students from Huntsville High School (HHS) took the top spot in a provincial robotics competition.
HHS’ Hoya Robotics won the provincial FIRST Robotics Championship, which ran April 14 to 16 in Mississauga. The team shared the top spot with two allied teams from Governor Simcoe Secondary School in St. Catharines and Orchard Park Secondary School in Hamilton.
Hoya Robotics’ Terry the Pterodactyl, named for its grasping arms which resemble the head of the dinosaur, went up against more than 60 teams from across Ontario.
According to Ian McTavish, the HHS teacher who started the team in 2012, the competition had robots pick up and throw “nine-inch tennis balls” at a series of targets, with a bonus challenge of climbing a line of monkey bars. McTavish says Terry was the only robot in the entire province that made it past every bar.
“The last four [rounds], my heart rate was extremely high. By the time I had gone up there and finished saying yes [to joining the alliance], my watch thought I was on a run,” says Tempest. “When I went back to talk to the rest of the team, they were all over the moon and ready to compete.”
The challenge for the year was announced in January, during the COVID-19 lockdown, giving teams about four months to design, build, and program their robots. Because of that, McTavish says the approximately 40 HHS students involved worked together remotely to prototype and design the robot via Computer-Aided Design (CAD).
Parts were created using the school’s CNC machine, laser cutter, and 3D printer. The robot was then assembled, programmed, and tested at Trinity United Church’s gym.
McTavish says competitions like these are a great primer for going into STEM. He relates the story of a former student who now studies engineering at Georgian College and landed a co-op position designing sawmills with CAD.
“In his interview, he showed them the robot that he had designed as a member of our team, and that basically sealed the deal for him,” says McTavish. “It’s been pretty awesome because a lot of our alumni are now working in the industry. It’s one of the only teams in the high school where kids are going pro right after school.”
Tempest says he got hooked on robotics early on, starting with Lego robots, and going to his first robotics competition in grade eight.
“When I got into high school in grade nine, I knew that I was definitely going to join the robotics team,” says Tempest. “I’ve enjoyed every single day I’ve been on it, and it’s been amazing.”
He adds that he plans to go into STEM after high school, although he hasn’t decided on a discipline just yet.
With their win in Ontario, the team qualified for the competition’s international championships in Houston. Tempest says logistical challenges meant they were not able to attend.
“We were not able to go this past weekend to compete, but we are hoping to make it there again next year,” says Tempest. “That’s the biggest thing for us, that our program continues to grow. We really appreciate everybody from the community that has supported us, and hope to see some more support so we can get these kids to the world championships,” adds McTavish.