First ever Pilbara RoboCup hosted in Wickham

Some of the region’s brightest young sparks went to Wickham last weekend to compete in the first Pilbara RoboCup Junior event.

Wickham Primary School hosted the meet, where schools from the City of Karratha and Town of Port Hedland competed for tech supremacy with three types of robot builds over several categories.

Events included dance-offs incorporating robots, maze running, sumo wrestling and even a rescue challenge for the top-of-the-line EV3 robots.

Pilbara RoboCup Junior event organiser Melissa Remiers said skills learnt in robotics had far-reaching benefits for students.

“The RoboCup Junior competition encompasses not only engineering and IT skills, but extends right across the school curriculum,” she said.

“It addresses social development by encouraging sportsmanship, sharing, teamwork, understanding differences between individuals, co-operation and organisational skills.” Representatives from WA Police, Rio Tinto and Scitech judged the Bee-Bots, Edison robots and EV3s.

This is the first year RoboCup Junior WA has reached out beyond Scitech and Curtin Stadium into regional WA.