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The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday February 26, 2003 - A5 Hydraulic `arm' raises engineering skills After months of design work and preparation, teams of Halton Catholic elementary students will bring their robotic arms designed with teachers and pro fessional engineers to Burlington's St. Mark School on Saturday to compete in the 10th Annual Halton Engineering Challenge. The event is a unique, co-oper ative initiative between business and education that was developed by Halton teachers and local pro fessional engineers to meet many of the knowledge, skills and application expectations of the Grade 8 Fluids and Mechanical Efficiency units of the curriculum. " The Halton Engineering Challenge has been a Halton tra dition for 10 years and continues to grow each year." said Cesare DiDonato. Challenge Oiganizing Committee member and Curriculum Consultant with the Halton Catholic District School Board. " This year, there will be a total of 22 elementary schools partici pating from across the region, 12 from the Halton Catholic District School Board and 10 from the Halton District School Board, involving over 1 .000 Grade 8 stu dents, with a total of 120 students competing the day of the Challenge." The first round of Challenge and Olympic event activities start at 9 a.m. and conclude with the presentation of gold, silver and bronze plaques at the Awards Ceremony to be held at 12:30 p.m. The student teams are required to design and construct a hydraulic robotic arm that is capa ble of transporting miniaturized automotive coils, based on the coil manufacturing process at the ArvinMeritor automotive plant in Milton. By accepting the Challenge. Grade 8 students work in teams of four from elementary schools throughout Halton to apply the knowledge and skills learned in the theoretical portion of the Challenge to an authentic engi neering problem presented by ArvinMeritor and the Professional Engineers of Ontario. They will then present their robotic arms to the evaluation of panels of professional engineers. In addition, the teams will compete in four Olympic Engineering events - run by McMaster engineering students including building the longest possible arm. building a pennyholding foil boat, constructing a static display of building blocks within a time limit, and exploring the skills, strengths, and abilities needed in an engineering career. Gold, silver and bronze plaques will be awarded to teams based on their performance level in the robotic arm challenge and the Olympic events. The top three teams win a tour of the man ufacturing facilities at ArvinMeritor. There will be in excess of 25 professional engineers participat ing in this year's Challenge, along with 50 McMaster University Engineering students, who help to facilitate the events of the day, as well as assisting the Professional Engineers in judging. St. Mark School is located at 2145 Upper Middle Rd. Barrie Erskine · O akville Beaver E V O (Engineering Vastly Overdone) team members (from left) Meaghan Kahnert, Matt Jakuhow icz, Kam ila Kruzel, Tim O 'Brien , and Ju stin Oh watch team captain Kevin Kamkhelawan put the finishing touches on their hockey stick wielding robot. Robot competes in hockey challenge By Liz Campbell S P E C IA L T O IT IK B E A V E R The Toronto Maple Leafs might be interested in some thing developed by 27 students ranging from Grade 9 to OAC level at St. Ignatius of Loyola Secondary School. Led by team captains Kevin Ramkhelawan and Meaghan Kanhert. the team has created a robot which can play hockey. It will stickhandle, shoot and score - along with 28 hockey playing robots - at the upcom ing 10th annual Canada FIR ST Robotic Games. More than 1.000 high school students, teachers and engineering men tors have taken part in the event. Kevin and Meaghan attend ed Shad Valley, a summer enrichment program at the University of Waterloo and dis covered that there was an engi neering competition held annu ally by Spar Aerospace. This year's assignment: to create a hockey-playing robot. The two returned to school last fall and set about building a team which they named EV O Engineering Vastly Overdone. EV O then subdivided into four sub-groups with different responsibilities in order to meet all the criteria of the competi tion. One group created the Web site. A second design group built the robot. The third group was responsible for documenta tion and the fourth conducted the presentation at the competi tion. Kevin and Meaghan over saw the whole process. Their entry is a team effort, with design ideas coming from everyone. Basically, the robot is a cube with a hockey stick out front. Its frame is made from old school desks, and the body includes recycled material from the school's wood and welding shops, plexiglass, stainless steel and lots of odds and ends donated by Thermo CRS. When he's been completely painted in dark blue with black and white highlights, the group w ill find a name for their hock ey playing robot, says Kevin, The control system for the robot involves computer pro gramming, radio frequencies and even hydraulics. Two jo y sticks control its actions and a piston shoots (he stick out so it can shoot the ball (it w ill be playing with a street hockey ball rather than a puck). Because it's on wheels, ihe robot can be maneuvered sim ply by turning one or both sets of wheels. " It 's been a great learning experience for us," says Kevin. " Our teachers, John Kosik and Tim McCarthy have helped us. and answered questions. But they let us do the work. There was tons we learned about using tools, electronics, and lots of safety stuff. Wc even learned about working in the real world and what happens when people don't meet dead lines." EV O had to find $8,750 just to enter the competition and says Kevin, they raised these funds by holding fundraising events at the school (bake sales, a soccer tournament and even a computer dating service they called Matchmaker) as well as by approaching companies. The Halton Catholic School Board. Lexus Canada. Dupont Canada. CH Robinson, Union Pumps and Shad Valley all made sub stantial donations. The three-day competition is at Humber College. Feb. 27 to March 1, running from 7 a.m. 11 p.m., so the students w ill be staying at a hotel nearby. The prizes includes huge trophies for the winners as well as the chance for $2000 schol arships. That could prove use ful to the students. Kevin, a grade 12 student, plans to study mechanical engineering and Meaghan. completing her O AC year, is going to study aero space. And if their hockey-playing robot proves a success, perhaps the Leafs might consider draft ing him next season. Man caught stealing items from office An alert employee helped police catch a thief stealing per sonal items from a South Sheridan Way office complex. The employee first tipped off the police about a suspicious man running out of an office building carrying a briefcase after the normal business hours of the building on Feb. 14. Police responded to the call, but did not locate the man. They discovered, however, that some one had made an unsuccessful attempt to gain entry to a closed office. The employee also told police he remembered seeing the same man on Feb. 6 checking office doors after hours. Last Friday at 1:06 p.m.. the same employee called police after spotting the man in the same office building. This time, police spotted the suspect sitting in a car in the parking lot. But when an officer approached the car. it drove off at a high rate of speed. The car was eventually stopped by the police on Winston Churchill Boulevard near Sheridan Garden Drive in Oakville. Police found a wallet inside the car belonging to a female employee from the office com plex. A Toronto man is charged with possession of stolen proper ty. dangerous driving and failing to stop for police. J,NAL D A Y & f m B R I C L A M ) ] ii% VL1 *"** T H >sl IX. JA C A N A D A S LA R G E S T F A S H IU K F A B R IC D IS T R IB U T O R ^ Jir S A U ! [ij 7 1 l »I *j [C L U B M E M B E R SS A V E | ONOURB4IK*S».mCa>K«OK ] O FF O UR REGULARPRICES FASHION FABRIC & SEWING NOTIONS 11 WEEK ONLY · FEB.24-MAR.2 Entire InSlore Slock' PC debate March 5 The Progressive Conservative Association for Oakville will prepare for its formal nomination convention with a special debate between the candi dates on March 5 at Le Dome. The contenders include local busi nessmen Andrew Pask and David Young plus Ward 6 councillor Kurt Franklin. Starting time is 7 p.m. Current Oakville M PP Gary Carr, who served at Queen's Park for 13 years and is now Speaker of the House, made it known last month that he won't seek re-election. According to organizers, the debate will better acquaint local members with each of the candidates prior to the nom ination meeting which has been set for Wednesday, March 26 at Le Dome, starting at 7 p.m. Your Town, your Newspaper! B U T T E R IC K P A T T E R N S Individually priced. O N L Y 2.99 E A . Offer valid Feb 24-Mar 2,2003, whtte quantibes last Not valid with any other discounts T K m tm | Membership Pays! Not a Member' Not a problem ! Become a Member today! There are still seven m onths remaning for the current membership year, and plenty opportunities to SAVE! Ask for a brochure today! 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