Waterloo – Thirty teams of high school students from across Ontario and the U.S. will showcase their creativity and technology skills at the 11th annual FIRST Robotics Waterloo Regional Competition, which today.

The students had six weeks to build the robots from a common kit of parts provided by FIRST, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. This year’s game, Recycle Rush™, involves two competing teams of three robots each. During the match, drivers remotely control robots to stack as many containers as possible in less than three minutes. Teams throw objects onto the field to earn additional points for disposing of it.

“FIRST Robotics is an excellent way for kids to get real experience in science and technology,” said Peter Teertstra, director of the Sedra Student Design Centre at Waterloo and chair of Waterloo’s FIRST planning committee. “The students are learning engineering design in the best possible way by taking the robot that they have designed and built and testing how well it works in competition with other teams.”

The honourable Liz Sandals, Minister of Education for Ontario and a graduate of Waterloo, will speak at the opening ceremony on Friday.

The FIRST Robotics Waterloo Regional Competition is one of a series of five FRC regionals held in Ontario. FIRST Robotics Canada organizes the competitions, and the Ministry of Education, Bruce Power, Synnex and a number of other leading engineering and technology companies sponsor the Ontario FRC Regionals. The winners of the regional competitions advance to the First Robotics Competition World Championships held next month in St. Louis, Missouri.

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