High school robotics teams from across Ontario converged at Durham College’s (DC) Oshawa campus from March 3 to 5 for the 2017 FIRST® Robotics Competition: Ontario District – Durham College event. FIRST is an acronym that means For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.

This is the third year DC has sponsored the FIRST event, welcoming more than 1,000 students on 40 teams. Competitors demonstrated their engineering skills and knowledge playing FIRST Steamworks, a new game developed for the annual robotics battle. By the end, one alliance, comprising three teams working together, walked away victorious. Congratulations goes to teams 1285 (The Big Bang), 4939 (Allspark9) and 4946 (The Alpha Dogs), who all hail from the Peel District School board. They will be competing at the Ontario District Championships at the beginning of April and then, if successful, will head to the World Championships in St. Louis at end of that month.

The FIRST Robotics Competition: Ontario District – Durham College event was the first of nine qualifying competitions being held across Canada. FIRST is an international, not-for-profit organization dedicated to inspiring young people’s interest and participation in science and technology. In 2017, over 3,000 teams comprising more than 78,000 students from around the world will compete in FIRST Steamworks.