Why rage against the machine when it’s a source of so much fun?
The next generation of mechanical engineers are making preparations, at their training facility in Google's Breithaupt Street office in Kitchener, to put their honour, skills and smarts on the line for a looming provincial robotics competition at the University of Waterloo.
The 2702 Rebels, a group of 40 high school aged robotics enthusiasts from Waterloo Region, will pit their machines against those of 31 other teams from across Ontario at a First Robotics Competition regional event March 22-24, aiming, ultimately, to secure a place at the world championship in Detroit later in April.
“We’re very focused and serious at the moment,” says Michelle McDonnell, one of the group’s adult mentors. Two of her children are taking part.
“But really this is about learning and socializing and enjoying the process.”
The Rebels themselves custom built their training facility in space donated by Google, now transformed into a race-track-like layout that mimics the one they’ll compete in. Their robots must complete a series of tasks, such as lifting cubes, placing the cubes in designated buckets, climbing obstacles, all in concert with other robots during the competition.
“The main feature of the robot I’m working on is it climbs really well,” says Kevin McCloy, a 16-year-old Grade 11 student at Cameron Heights Collegiate in Kitchener.
Cameron Heights Grade 11 student Kevin McCloy, 16, is a third-year member of the
2702 Rebels Robotics team. (Communitech photo: Sara Jalali)
The competition rules state that the robots must be built within a six-week time frame. McCloy says the team’s “secret weapon” is a portable 3D printer capable of churning out parts for their robots in an hour or two instead of the days it would take to manufacture them using traditional machining. They plan to bring the printer with them to the competition at UWaterloo to help them retool broken parts and deal with other design emergencies.
“[Our competitors] never see it coming,” he says with a grin.
McCloy, who, like many of his teammates got his start in robotics with Lego robotic projects, says that he has mapped out a career for himself in mechanical engineering and appreciates having an opportunity to indulge his STEM interests. But says the best part of belonging to the group is the social opportunity.
“I really like hanging out with these people,” McCloy says. “They’re my friends now, even though only a couple of us go to the same school.
It’s fun being able to hang out with other people who like robotics and who like design. Some of them, like Fraser over there, he goes to the French school, and I never would have met him if not for this. We’re pretty close friends now.
“So I’ve learned a lot about teamwork. I learned a lot more about leadership. I learned a lot more about graphics design. That’s what’s great about this program. We’re all learning how to work together to make something that’s really cool for our team.”
Madeline McDonnell is a first-year member of the Rebels robotic team. She’s a 13-year-old,
Grade 8 student at Baden Public School. (Communitech photo: Sara Jalali)
The Rebels are co-ed. About a third of the members are female. Madeline McDonnell, a 13-year-old, Grade 8 student at Baden Public School, has an older brother (Benjamin, 16) on the team. She, too, got her start with Lego robotics.
“I started with just filing [metal] and sweeping floors. Then I started putting bolts in and screwing things together, and now I’m drilling and using the metal lathe and the mill and the bandsaw.”
Another of the team’s mentors is Google software engineer Shawn Wallace. He, too, has two children, a boy (Jordan, 16) and a girl (Paige, 13), on the team.
“They’re all great kids,” he says of the team. “They tend to have very niche interests and so for them to find kids that are like them, I think, is really good. Most of them don’t play a lot of sports. They’re people who like to build stuff and write code, so it’s a really good place.”
And how is the team going to do at University of Waterloo?
“We’re going to win!”
