PVNC Robotics Competition to be bigger than ever

St. Patrick CES to host 24 teams in annual Board-wide Robotics Competition Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018

Design, check. Coding, check. Math, check. Problem solving, check. Team work, check. Fun, check.

The annual Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board Robotics Competition at St. Patrick Catholic Elementary School in Peterborough has it all.

This year the event is bigger than it has ever been. St. Patrick CES will host 24 teams from schools across the board on Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018, competing in three robotics challenges from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School students will be on hand to referee and to show off some high-school robotics during the event’s tech fair.

Teams will compete with Lego Mindstorms robots, which will be built before the competition, and students will be given time between competitions to upgrade robots as needed.

“There’s a reason this event continues to grow and that’s because it offers students and educators so much in the way of exploration. It inspires students to work together to solve problems in real time, while competing in a fun, good-spirited competition,” St. Patrick CES principal Karan Leal said. “Students design, program and code their own robots. They learn great STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) skills and we tend to get as many girls participating as boys, which is really promising to see.”

The Maze Challenge

This challenge is to successfully finish the maze within two minutes. A robot must be able to navigate a maze from start to finish using either its touch or ultra-sensors. The winner will be the robot that makes it the farthest or finishes the maze the fastest.

The Hockey Challenge

Teams will create two robots that can move or hit a ball into a net. The robots will be run by a remote control. Teams will play against opponents in a round-robin format. The team that scores the most goals in the five-minute game will win. In the event of a tie, there will be a best-of-five shootout.

The Robot Battle

Robots will fight for five minutes in a small arena. Robots can have any Lego battle attack strategies such as spinners, swinging arms, or shooting balls. Points will be awarded by the referee. The team wins by having the most points at the end of the five-minute match, by disabling the other robots, and/or by pushing the other robots out of the arena. It will be a round-robin format with four teams fighting at the same time.