Neilburg Composite School’s Keelan Graham, pictured here with Chris Roslinsky, the program head of electronic systems engineering technology at Sask Polytech. (Submitted photo/Jeffrey Walso)

By Martin Martinson

Provincial competition

Neilburg student takes second place at 2022 Robot Rumble

May 9, 2022 | 3:00 PM

Ninety students from more than 20 high schools across Saskatchewan gathered together to compete at Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s 2022 Robot Rumble.

An annual robotics challenge where teams spend months building, programming and testing robots made from SUMO robot kits, among the winners was Neilburg Composite School’s Keelan Graham.

A Grade 11 student at his first robotics competition, Graham took home second place in the stock robots category, earning him $1,000 tuition credit to a Sask. Polytechnic program in the school of mining, energy and manufacturing, along with $150 cash.

The event featured a series of matches where two SUMObots would face-off against each other in a ring with the goal of trying to knock or push their opponent’s robot out of the ring, with the SUMObot that stayed in the longest winning.

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Robotics teacher at Neilburg Composite, Jeffrey Walso said he was proud of what Graham was able to accomplish, seeing first-hand the time and attention to detail he devoted to his craft.

“Coming out of COVID, this was a good one for Keelan,” he said. “The robot that he built and was working on was one from before COVID hit, that he had started building when we was in Grade 9, and he put it all together and did all the programming.”

One of four from Neilburg to take part in the provincial competition, this marked Graham’s first year of the Robot Rumble after it was cancelled the last two years due to the pandemic.

Walso said it’s valuable to have events like the robotics challenge available for students again, after being cancelled the last two years.

“It’s been nice getting some of these programs going again,” he said. “Extra-curriculars are tough in the public school system right now, it’s hard to find coaches, it’s hard to find the time to get into it, but the kids get a lot out of it. It’s so valuable to take that classroom learning and put it out there into real practice.”

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Martin.Martinson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @MartyMartyPxP1