Inside King's-Edgehill School
After months of intense planning, coding and robot building, the KES Robotics Club recently competed in a national competition in Montreal, Quebec and placed first against 12 other teams to qualify for the World Robotics Olympiad (WRO) that will take place later this fall.
The WRO brings together students’ love of science and technology in four categories with different age groups. This allows participants to develop their skills from a young age and encourages everyone, regardless of age, to learn and grow with one another. The idea is for all teams to design, build and program a robot that is capable to perform a challenge, play soccer or demonstrate a solution for a real-life problem.
This year the challenge is focused on coming up with innovative solutions to create “Sustainabots:” Robots for Sustainability. The KES team is the Canadian representative for the 16 to 19 year old division.
The KES Robotics Club competing at the WRO is comprised of a team of 5 students: Jacob Liu (Grade 12), Jeff Zhang (Grade 12), Tom Wang (Grade 12), Vaishnavan Somaskaram (Grade 12), and Calvin Shen (Grade 11), and their coach, Chris.
This year the WRO takes place in San Jose, Costa Rica, at the San Jose University from November 10th to the 12th. After the competition, students will have the opportunity to travel around Costa Rica with the rest of the Canadian teams.
The WRO brings students from all around the world together to encourage and develop their creativity, design and problem solving skills through challenging robot competitions and related activities.
In a recent article in Hants Journal, KES math teacher DJ DeCoste recognized the robotics competitions for
their unique educational opportunities, “In robotics, students are given a challenge… and it’s up to them to meet those tasks,” he said. “That means a team is broken into small groups to take this on. It’s how realoperations function.”
The KES team has worked hard to represent Canada at the World Robotic Olympiad in Costa Rica against over 60 other countries. We are very proud and look forward to cheering them on.
KES is committed to helping students identify their talents and potential. For more information on how KES helps students Be More, download our Day in the Life Photojournal.
