Student-run robotics competition shoots down financial barriers

High school students have put together one of Waterloo Region’s largest robotics events. CTV’s Heather Senoran reports.

After months of preparation, more than 100 Waterloo Region District School Board students put their robots to the test at MechMania.

The student-run robotics competition is now in its third year. It was started by a small group of students from Waterloo Collegiate Institute because they wanted to join an existing competition, but couldn’t afford it.

“We said, ‘If we can’t join, we’ll do it ourselves,’” Taran Flora, co-founder of MechMania, said. “We ended up getting a bunch of grant money from the city and we said, ‘We’ll make our own robotics competition for everybody in the city.”

Their mission was to make robotics accessible.

Since then, MechMania has grown, and representatives from nine schools from throughout Waterloo Region took part in the fun on Friday.

“We buy parts and we distribute them. For all schools coming, it is absolutely free of charge,” Flora explained.

This year’s competition was held at the University of Waterloo.

“I walked in here today and my mind was blown seeing the progress from first, second and third year,” Daniel Li, co-founder of MechMania, said. “We have so many people here today and our parts are genuinely professional for the robotic industry.”

The benefits of the event go far beyond the competition.

“Because of this, I applied to mechatronics engineering and that’s where I’m headed in the future,” Flora said. “It’s a perfect segue for me.”

Cleaning up the competition

This year’s theme was “eco-friendly.”

One of the challenges had the teams showing off their robots’ green thumbs.

“Students are going to have their robots plant trees out in a line and then they will be judged on how many tress they can plant,” Vivienne Hardy, communications coordinator for MechMania, said. “There are mini tree saplings that we 3D printed.”

Another game, called Sharpshooter, involved robots sinking baskets.

“It’s themed after picking up trash. Students are going to be able to use their robots to pick up trash and put it in garbage cans,” Hardy explained.