Robots—and students—in action at the 2010 VEX Robotics Competion.
The winners of last year’s VEX Robotics Competition—hosted at BCIT—walked away with more than just your standard medal or trophy. Each of the competition winners was awarded conditional acceptance to a School of Energy engineering program at BCIT.
“Conditional acceptance means that as long as the student meets the prerequisites, they are accepted to an engineering program of their choice,” says Vicki Asada, school development manager for the School of Energy. “This is the first time the School of Energy is awarding conditional acceptance to a winner of a robotics competition.”
Michael McClelland, a student at H.J. Cambie Secondary School in Richmond, was on one of the winning teams at the VEX Competition, and he is taking advantage of his prize. He has applied to the Mechatronics and Robotics program for fall 2011.
“Engineering appeals to me because I enjoy, and am inspired by, creative solutions involving technology,” Michael says. “Also, involving many fields, such as electrical components with mechanical ones, means even more creative solutions. I also like the whole team collaboration thing, and brainstorming with others of similar mindset.”
Last year’s VEX competition was such a success that BCIT is hosting the 2011 event on Saturday, March 12 (details here). And once again, the School of Energy is awarding conditional acceptance to competition winners.
March is National Engineering Month. The event promotes awareness of engineering professions and highlights career choices in the engineering fields.
