About Us

The IEEE Ottawa Robotics Competition aims at bringing engineering awareness to students in grades 5 to 12 by presenting a fun and instructive approach to problem solving.

Using LEGO® EV3® or Arduino robot kits, the students have around 8 weeks to design and build an autonomous robot in teams of two to five. They learn engineering concepts with the help of a mentor and come together to produce a working prototype. The teams compete during a one day event where they demonstrate the superiority of their robot by completing a challenge. They are also judged on a poster presentation, their team spirit, and their ability to answer judge’s questions.

Each team is provided with a description of the robot challenge as well as a set of rules. To help the students, workshops will be held by mentors to introduce concepts of robot design and programming. Assistance will be provided for the teams in difficulty, so that each team has a working robot on the date of the competition.

One of the principles of the competition is that we supplement the cost of the LEGO robot kits for the schools that get to keep them. This provides an incentive for schools to take part in the competition year after year, and raise the challenge for the advanced students. It also allows the teachers to become more familiar with the robot kits.

During the competition, T-shirts, certificates, and lunch are provided to the participants; prizes are offered to the winning teams; and facilities are rented to hold the competition.

All of this organizing wouldn’t be possible without the help of patrons. In the past, help has been provided in the form of monetary gifts, robot kits, prizes or discounts on services or facilities. Other forms of patronage include providing personal time to mentor a team, providing snacks during the competition, or the offer of a company tour as a prize. Please visit our list of patrons for this year’s competition or contact our chair if you would like to make a donation.