Robots roll into Montreal competition for 1st time since pandemic

Kailey-Anne Donald was on team Skywalkers on Friday, building robots and competing against other schools in Montreal.

It was an opportunity to show young women they can do engineering and robotics, she said.

"I've been building robots for three months, but I feel like I have been doing it for four years," said Donald. "It just comes so naturally."

She is a student at Pierrefonds Community High School (PCHS) in Montreal, where the event was held for the first time in three years because of the pandemic. About 100 students from about a dozen different schools participated in the competition on Friday.

The students were faced with specific challenges they had to figure out before the head-to-head competition began. Teams were allowed to use whatever robotics system they chose, but no building or programming was allowed before the event.

WATCH | Robots in action in Montreal: 

Deeni Simon, a science teacher at PCHS, said she loves to see all the students busy assembling robots and testing their creations.

"Students are here working together," she said. "As a team, they're building something. They all have something in common that they are working towards."

She said the pandemic was keeping schools and students apart, but Friday was a whole different story as so many were able to participate.

Also on the Skywalkers, Seifeldeen Saad said he enjoys building and programming robots. He also enjoys working with his teammates and helping them, he said. It's an education he can use in his future career.

"We all just learn new stuff together each and every day," said Saad.