'It's very neat': Manitoba Robot Games sparking students' interest in STEM careers
Students from across the province gathered on Saturday to compete in the 25th Manitoba Robot Games and learn valuable engineering skills.
Ria Sagert was among the many students competing in the games held inside Tec Voc High School.
Her robot is completely autonomous -- tasked with moving a barrel through a maze.
The grade 12 student said the project affirmed her future plans to go into engineering.
"Yes, yeah, for sure," said Sagert. "It really gets me into coding and seeing how this can kind of be a manufacturing plant and how a robot could actually deliver this stuff. It's very neat."
Sagert is part of the Robot Fight Club, which is run by WISE Kid-netic Energy at the University of Manitoba.
The team specifically focuses on getting girls interested in STEM, which has historically been male-dominated.
"We cater to girls as well as trans folks, non-binary to be inclusive and bring that diversity to the field," explained Rebecca Chin, a community initiative coordinator at WISE Kid-netic Energy. "Bringing everyone's identities, contributions, and experiences can lead to more creative solutions."
Students at the games can compete in several categories, like obstacle racing or robot sumo wrestling.
Regardless of what sport they compete in, students take home important skills.
"The hard skills are that technical piece. They built the robot themselves. They had to figure out where to put the sensors, so learning about how technology works, how the coding works," said Chin. "And then the soft skills, that team building and having to work with other people because all these participants are from different schools."
According to its most recent labour market outlook, the province expects there will be a shortfall of several hundred employees in the architecture and engineering field over the next three years.
It's an issue Alan Pollard, a retired engineer and executive member of the Manitoba Robot Games, said is already hitting the industry.
"For a number of years in engineering, we've had gaps, and people are trying to hire engineers," he said. "We don't want to poach them from other schools, other countries and other provinces, but it does happen."
It's a gap that students inspired by the games will one day help to fill. Students like robot sumo wrestling champ Samuel Peters, who wants to be an architect.
"Honestly, I do believe it does reinforce that idea, but I also believe these skills that I learned could also lead to other jobs," said the grade eight student from Carman Collegiate.
Peters said while competing was a little stressful, winning the championship felt very good.
This is the competition's first year back since the pandemic started. Organizers say attendance was slightly down from previous years but hope to hold its biggest competition yet next year.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.
Government proposes new policy for federally regulated employees to disconnect from work
In their 2024 budget, the federal government wants to amend the Canada Labour Code, so employers in federally regulated sectors will eliminate work-related communication with employees outside of scheduled hours. If implemented, this would affect roughly 500,000 employees across the country.
Earthquake jolts southern Japan
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 hit southern Japan late on Wednesday, said the Japan Meteorological Agency, without issuing a tsunami warning.