The Calgary BMO Center was alive with action during the weekend, because more than 250 teams from all over North America participated in Mecha Mayhem.
Preparing for four weeks, the teams design, program and build their robot to compete in a specific style 2 against 2 match which has teams stacking hoops in various ways.
A reference sheet that explains how competition works.
Mayhem mecha
Since 2023, teams made up of middle school, high school and university students have participated in competition, which can lead to larger and better platforms depending on Mayhem mecha Todd Ablett organizer.
“From this, if you are doing well enough, you qualified for the world championships,” said Ablett, “where there will be 1,000 teams in various categories of the whole planet.”
Get daily national news
Get the best news of the day, the titles of political, economic and current affairs, delivered in your reception box once a day.
Although competition during the weekend was the main objective, organizations such as Alberta Innovates, post-secondary institutions and other STEM-related companies were all on site to help promote a passion for A future in technology.
“Techniques, scientists, engineers, technicians, people related to STEMs, there are all kinds of programming stuff,” said Ablett. “What is cool is that you do it competitively.”
This year, a team from Archbishop Jordan Catholic School by Sherwood Park nicknamed the “Rat Lovers” participated in Mecha Mayhem. The 11th year student, Wayne Clarke, told Global News that to succeed in a competition like this, it is important to be flexible.
“This bot was originally intended to present itself for skills,” said Clarke. “But we decided because of the time constraints which simply would not be possible, so in recent weeks, we have decided to make them more than one winning bot.”
Initially, an interest in robotics aroused an interest in Clarke and the rest of his team to register during their school robotics, but quickly they found that it was more than that.
“Of course, we have all taken the course,” said Clarke. “We have all become very good friends through it, and it was really fun from there.”
While Clarke has just over a year before his diploma, he intends to continue to become a mechanical engineer.
& Copy 2025 Global News, A Division of Corus Entertainment Inc.