Dawson students place 4th at annual Canadian Robotics Competition
The Canadian Robotics Competition (CRC) is an annual event open to high schools and CEGEPs in the greater Montreal region. It is a multi-disciplinary event with the objective of building a robot, themed kiosk, website and short video. This year, the competition ran for two days from Feb 25th to 27th and was hosted at College Montmorency. This represents the sixth consecutive year Dawson has participated in CRC.
Our team did exceptionally well this year, making it to the finals and placing 4th! This was a difficult task considering the competition objectives: to design a robot capable of extracting a foam noodle from a holding post, move to another section of the playing field, and place it into a series of stacked tubes in order to accumulate points. Dawson was up against 27 other CEGEPs and high schools. Malfunctions were abundant, tensions were high, but the atmosphere was one of healthy competitiveness and sportsmanship.
Besides taking 4th place in the robot competition, Dawson also received merit plaques for:
- Sportsmanship
- Journalism
- Outstanding Participation
- And Best in class Robot Construction.
What made the difference this year was a closely-knit group of student who truly collaborated in bringing the project together. Student worked together from various programs including:
- Pure and Applied Science – Robot and control programming
- Civil Engineering Technology – Project management and robot construction
- Computer Science – Website development and Robot construction
- Mechanical Engineering Technology – Robot Construction and kiosk construction
The theme this year was “Monopoly” and this theme translated to the design of the kiosk and website. CRC Robotics has become a mainstay in many high schools who have been competing for years. This has resulted in a healthy crossover of students who come to Dawson aware of the competition and who are eager to participate. The question as to whether Dawson participates in CRC is often asked at Open House by students and parents alike. The benefit of this competition to students is immeasurable, and, as always, those who commit to the challenges benefit from a wealth of experiences, both technical and personal.
