Enimkii robot caught judges’ eye
By Marci Becking
NORTH BAY – Their decision to create a defensive robot helped students from Nbisiing Secondary School earn the coveted Judges award in Northern Ontario’s first robotics competition.
“We knew that we would be working with the other teams to do each challenge so we designed ours to be defensive and perform one task,” says James Horner, Nbisiing instructor and team mentor . Team 5035 anticipated that the more than 30 other teams participating in the inaugural three-day competition at Nipissing University’s athletic centre would build offensive robots to throw balls to score in this year’s “Aerial Assist” challenge, a three-on-three game like basketball.
Grade 11 student Brittnay Gauthier, whose mom is from Michipicoten FN and whose dad is from Serpent River FN, says that the team designed an arm to block high shots of two-foot exercise balls at goal to score 10 points.
“We knew most teams would be going for the high goals so we built the arm to measure 8 feet- 5 inches,” says the 16 year-old who hopes to become a medical doctor. “Next year we will add an assisting arm for passing. It will make our robot an effective team player.”
The team of 12 First Nation students – nine from Nbisiing and three Grade 8 students from Bear Island who had to travel on ice roads over Lake Temagami to participate – had six weeks to design robot Enimkii – “Electric Thunder — for the March 26-29 competition. The North Bay competition becomes the tenth event on a Canadian circuit staged by FIRST — “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology” – a New Hampshire-based program that was founded in 1989 and this year will involve over 2700 teams and 68,000 high school students in its robotics competition.
Judges recognized rookie Team 5035 for “sustainability”, making note of the fact that the nine Nbisiing team members represent 10 per cent of the First Nation school’s total student population.
Team member Jeremy Ducharme says that the main difference he saw between the Nibissiing team and others was that other teams were “more formal” in how they approached their tasks.
There were 13 rounds of competition and even though they didn’t make the elimination round, the team feels they are better prepared for next year.
Brittnay Gauthier , whose favourite subjects are physics, chemistry and advanced functions, says : “I’m taking Grade 12 classes as well so I’ll be able to graduate next January, but I want to stay the whole year so that I can participate in next year’s competition.”
Enimkii builders heaped praise on their team mentors, Near North District School Board’s Team 1305, which took the event’s prestigious Regional Chairman’s Award for a presentation that outlined the philosophy the teens believe in and the ethics they live by.
Participating teams came from across the province, including Timmins, Sudbury, Kingston, Toronto, Haliburton and Milton.
Mayor Al McDonald and Anthony Rota, co-chairs of the competition said they were delighted with how well everything ran.
“This is without a doubt the very best, most amazing first North Bay robotics competition you could ever have,” McDonald said.
“It’s been an amazing experience,” said Rota. “These young people are so inspiring, so talented and so dedicated. And it’s a lot of fun. You come to one of these competitions and you’re hooked.”
Plans are underway to make North Bay an annual stop on the robotics competition circuit, which drew more than 1,000 visitors from across Ontario to the city for the three-day event.