Calgary robotics team to show off frisbee golf robot at national tournament

Whirring motors and clattering tools are the first sign that this isn't your average after-school program. 

In a downtown Calgary basement, several teams of middle and high school students are hard at work, building robots. 

This weekend, Western Mechatronics is hosting a tournament called Mecha Mayhem, three days of competition from Friday to Saturday at the BMO Centre. 

"The challenge is basically to build a robot to lob disks into a Frisbee golf goal," explains Justin Zhou, who co-founded the club in 2019. 

The now 23-year-old was inspired to start the club after he and his brother dove into the world of robotics during their own high school days.

"The relationships that you make, the connections that you get with different competitors from all [over] the world, it's something that you just can't get with any other club from high school." 

Kartik Ramachandran, 15, a student at FFCA South high school, says it's an opportunity to build the same skills as other students with different interests. He says finding this passion has changed his future path. 

"Before this, I was looking to [join] the medical field, but after I started this, I'm enjoying what I'm doing here, so I'm gonna continue doing it," Ramachandran said. 

Ramachandran was introduced to the club by his friend, Kevin Zhau. 

They first met in kindergarten, and now they're both eyeing degrees at the University of Waterloo's Mechatronics Engineering program. 

"I've learned a lot of skills I've not been able to learn, like teamwork, like leadership," says Zhau, who goes to Dr. E.P. Scarlett high school. 

"During tournaments you face a lot of hardships and challenges you have to overcome, so it really helps your problem solving." 

One of WestMech's coaches, Ning Yu Huang, says there will be plenty of other teams to learn from, as well. 

They're expecting more than 120 middle and high school competitors to take part. 

"We have teams coming from U.S., B.C., Ontario, so I guess it will also open their eyes to robotics from other parts, especially some of the newer teams who just joined us this year."

He hopes that by finding the hobby of robotics, some students could transform their passion into a career, and the engineering and communication skills being learned will help successfully transition these students into the workforce.

"A lot of the students have a lot of interest in this field, so whether it opens their eyes to different parts of it, whether it's the building or the programming, if they can make a future of that, that would be great," said the 25-year-old coach. 

"Everyone here has the potential of being that next STEM leader," he said. 

"We're providing them with the tools and everything that they need to build a tech environment here in Alberta." 

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