Four teams from Constable Neil Bruce dominated the recent annual Western Canada RoboCup Junior Games held at Okanagan College.
Two of the Constable Neil Bruce Middle School teams took first and second place in the primary category (age 13 and under) for their performances in the rescue challenge.
The winners were among almost 200 students competing in a record number of teams signed up for this year’s games, held at the Centre for Learning on the Kelowna campus.
Students spent in some cases several weeks building their robots in preparation for the games, then brought them to the college where the robots competed in the areas of soccer, dance and search and rescue.
Taking the top spots in the secondary category (age 14-19) were:
1st Place—The Rescuers, Online Middle School
2nd Place—Team Ultralord, Constable Neil Bruce Middle
3rd Place—The G.E.A.R.S, KLO Middle School
Soccer category
1st Place—Tornados, Central Program and Services
2nd Place—Pele Returns, Online Middle School
3rd Place—Robo Bro. N, Vernon Secondary School
Primary (age 13 and under) were:
1st Place—Pyromaniaardvarkz, independent
2nd Place—Gangnam Guys, Anne McClymont Elementary
3rd Place—3 Musketeers, Constable Neil Bruce Middle
Rescue category
1st Place—Bot Builders, Constable Neil Bruce Middle
2nd Place—All Stars, Constable Neil Bruce Middle
3rd Place—The Hound Dogs Return,
Online Middle School
Nadir Ould-Khessal, who chairs the competition, and is also an electronic engineering technology instructor at Okanagan College, said this was one of the best competitions he had seen, with so many young students from all over the Central Okanagan School District taking part.
RoboCup has now been integrated into School District 23’s Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) program for Grade 7 to 9 students.
Winners from this competition have a chance to go on to compete in the Netherlands in June 2013.
In 2011 two winners of the Western Canada games—Hudson and Nelson Schier—went on to win the world event held in Istanbul, Turkey.
