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Billings wins robotics challenge

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Author: Dan Rosenburg

Last year Billings entered again and finished eighth, finishing ahead of such highly-regarded opponents as Marianapolis College. Last month they went into it for the third straight year and won the whole enchilada!

"Basically we went from last to first in the space of two years," Visser noted. "It was a fun thing, and it was good to see the kids' spirits."

Teacher Kevin Gundry-White, who helped out, called the Billings entry "the little robot that could." It was the lightest robot in the competition, weighing only 25.2 kilograms. "This goes to show you that size doesn't really matter," he said. "Determination, heart and teamwork make all the difference."

While a majority of the Billings floor personnel consisted of challenge project students from grades 7 and 8 in the persons of Kristina McMillan, Jennifer Dumais and Mackenzie Brown; driver John Duff, a third-year entrant, and Grade 10 student Kristen McNamee were the anchors.

"First place honestly comes as a shock, but we worked hard and it paid off," said McNamee. "It was fun but stressful," Brown observed.

The robot dazzled the judges with its high-speed maneuverability and its low-tech pickup system of picking up beach balls by using sticky duct tape. "The more duct tape, the better the robot!" cracked Duff, who hopes to get John Abbott College involved in robotics when he goes there next year.

Contestants also had to make a video, build a website and create a journal. They also had to construct and man a kiosk to represent their school at the competition site. Occupying the Billings booth were Morgan Crockett, Chelsea Massel, Elize Cucca and Amanda Duffin.

"Strangely enough, the only two public schools in the competition (Billings and Laurenhill Academy) made the finals," Visser marvelled, beating out a slew of private schools and highly-touted colleges.

At one point, disaster almost struck the Billings entry when smoke was seen streaming from the robot. "We almost blew the circuit board," Visser recalled. "Fortunately, we had just qualified for the finals and the smoke materialized only after the bell. The judges turned off the safety switch to cut the power. If this had happened two minutes earlier, we would never have made the finals."

The robot's most daunting task was to balance itself and a robot from a rival school on a ramp-like see-saw in a co-operative undertaking.

And the robot's name? "It's K.I.S.S.," said Dumais. "We decided to keep it simple!"

And now Billings students can look forward to its annual Science Fair scheduled for March 20-22 in conjunction with an open house at the school. The winners will advance to the annual Expos-Sciences in Montreal.

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