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With Ronnie Haidar ending his term as the UWSA president in a few short weeks, he took a moment to reflect on his time in office.
Students had a chance to make their designs take flight in the Red Bull Paper Airplane competition at St. Denis Centre.
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Lancers stand out in the year’s WESPY nominations.
Take a look at all the Easter fun over the long weekend in our centre page collage of photos.
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YOUR C AMPUS AND COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER // APRIL 9 2015 // VOL. #87 ISSUE #24 // UWINDSORLANCE.C A
The Exciting, Experiential Culture of FIRST Robotics
HANIYASSINE
Arts Editor __________________________ There’s chaos, but it’s a controlled chaos. On each side of the arena, three teams set themselves and their creations in position, working together as an alliance. Both alliances operate within their respective halves to stack multiple totes onto a designated scoring line. They work intensely to garner points, surrounded by a packed and highly excitable audience who cheer and chant throughout the match-up unfolding in front of them. Electronic music blares through the speakers and everything from the grand scheme to the nooks and crannies are being documented. “The energy is amazing. We always say this is part NASA, part NASCAR, part formula one, part Super Bowl, part rock concert,” said Irek Kusmierczyk, director of robotics at WEtech Alliance and planning committee member. This is the world of FIRST Robotics. Over the Easter weekend, the St. Denis Centre played home to the second Windsor-Essex Great Lakes Regional competition where 50 teams across North America competed for a place in the world robotics championship in St. Louis which begins Apr. 22. Each team consists of 20 to 30 high school students. The game played is Recycle Rush.
Two alliances pitted in the same scenario rank up as many points as possible by having their robots stack totes and place them upon a white scoring platform. In working with other teams, there comes the strong emphasis on teamwork. But there’s an even stronger emphasis for the business outside the arena. “We like to say every robotics team is a start-up company, and these kids get real world project management experience,” Kusmierczyk said. “It’s not just building a robot, it’s building a brand,” echoed Shreya Subramanian. Subramanian is a grade 12 high school student part of the team Inverse Paradox. Based in Mississauga, they’re one of the more seasoned teams within the Ontario circuit, competing in FIRST Robotics competitions for just over a decade. In the pit section where teams strategize and maintain their respective robots, there are also schedules, team objectives and finance records available, mainly for designated judges to see. “Judges come around, they look at things like your outreach and business plan and stuff like that,” Subramanian said. “It outlines how your team is sustainable and how we continue around the year.” As far as the competition goes, Subramanian hopes to make it to the finals, while acknowledging some fierce
A robot holding six totes attempts to move to the scoring platform during a finals match Apr. 4. [Photo by // Hani Yassine] competition. The teams aren’t merely teams, but establishments. Many are backed with a great host of sponsors and providers. These technical undertakings are inevitably intertwined with the business sense, leading students to
consider management, project constraints and efficiency above all. “We give them our budget, we know what we spend, we know what it takes to run it, we know where we have weak spots,” said Stefan Sing, a mentor for the Inverse Paradox team
and engineering student at the University of Windsor. “We can make this four different ways. Based on our resources, our money and our time, what’s the most efficient?” See ROBOTICS on page
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ARE YOU LOOKING FOR THAT FIRST JOB TO LAUNCH YOUR CAREER? The University of Windsor is currently seeking applications for the following position:
Liaison Officer (Approximately 11 weeks)
Student Recruitment Office Up to 8 positions (based out of the following locations: Hamilton, Kitchener, Ottawa, Greater Toronto area, and possibly Windsor) Posting Reference 2015-13-11 - CUPE 1393 POSTING CLOSE DATE: APRIL 17, 2015
To learn more about this exciting opportunity, please go to www.uwindsor.ca/employment to view the full job advertisement. We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. In pursuit of the University of Windsor’s Employment Equity Plan, members from the designated groups (Women, Aboriginal Peoples, Visible Minorities, Persons with Disabilities, and Members of Sexual Minorities) are encouraged to apply and to self-identify.