Okanagan College Media Release - Nov. 19, 2008

Students from across the region with a keen interest in science and technology will test their problem-solving and team building skills when they gather at Okanagan College’s Kelowna campus on Friday morning to compete in the third annual Western Canada RoboCup Junior.

Hosted by Okanagan College, Western Canada RoboCup Junior is an internationally accredited educational competition which includes teams of students ranging from Grade one to Grade 12 working to develop solutions to one of three specific challenges (soccer, rescue and dance) using robots.

This year will mark the third annual Western Canada RoboCup Junior – a record number of students have signed up for the event, which will draw close to 100 elementary, middle, and secondary students from schools such as Kelowna Senior Secondary, Anne McClymont Elementary, and Peachland Elementary, to name a few.

“In our third offering of RoboCup Junior we are finding the appetite for the competition is greater than in previous years,” said Nadir Ould-Khessal, professor of Electronic Engineering Technology at the College and Chair of RoboCup Junior.

The events get underway at 9:30 a.m. in the College’s Pit area with the soccer and rescue challenges. In soccer, teams comprised of two autonomous mobile robots track a special light-emitting ball in an enclosed field and attempt to score goals. In rescue, robots follow a course, negotiate uneven terrain and identify victims within re-created disaster scenarios.

The dance competition begins at 2 p.m. in the College’s lecture theatre. Teams competing in dance perform with their robots in choreographed routines set to music and will be judged in a range of areas including robot programming, design, costume, use of stage and entertainment value.

Ould-Khessal has been involved with the International RoboCup Federation for the past 12 years both as a team leader and participant. He designed teams while teaching at Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore and later at VAASA University of Applied Science in Finland. His involvement stems from a belief that the games are an excellent way to promote learning in a challenging and creative environment.

“RoboCup is a project that integrates many technologies at the same time,” said Ould-Khessal. “Students have to develop skill in construction, programming and most importantly, problem-solving. We stress education over competition. That is why the three challenges remain the same from year to year – so students can build on their previous success.

“Internationally, the RoboCup Games are a highly technical event. The goal of the RoboCup project is to develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can compete, and win, a game of soccer against the human world champion team by 2050.”

Whether that can be done or not remains to be seen. Winning students in Friday’s Western Canada competition will qualify to represent Canada in the World RoboCup Games in Graz, Austria from June 29 – July 5, 2009.

Major sponsors of the event include the Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of BC (ASTTBC), the Okanagan Science & Technology Council (OSTEC), UPS Always On and Signalink.

For more information about Western Canada RoboCup Junior, visit: www.okanagan.bc.ca/robocup. To find out more about RoboCup International, visit: www.robocup.org.