“The main idea behind it is to encourage kids to get involved in STEM programming — that’s science, technology, engineering and math,” said Hills.

The junior chapter of the NSBE was started at the school in 2007, said Hills, and weekly meetings take place with mentors from Ontario Power Generation as well as teacher advisors Hills and Karubiel Mahari.

Every student on the team is given a specific engineering position on the team, including mechanical, computer, industrial and electrical engineer, she said. And while only four students officially competed, the robotics team has 13 members in total.

For Grade 12 student Adolphina Wilson, who holds the mechanical engineer position on the team, the win has been a great confidence booster.

“When you see that you can sit down, put in the hard work, try your best and see a wonderful outcome, it really makes you feel that you’re capable of doing just about anything if you try.”

Wilson said she will be applying to the University of Toronto and Toronto’s Ryerson University’s industrial engineering program.

“It was a lot of hard work, so it felt great to win,” said Wilson, who added the team has been preparing for the competition since last year. “We’re very proud of ourselves.”

The competition had three different components, she said. The first part was the documentation process which took place before they went to Rochester.

“All throughout the time that we’re building and programming, everything needs to be documented and that’s a big chunk of where the points come from in the competition… We made it as close as possible to what an engineer’s document would look like.”

The second element was a PowerPoint presentation, summing up the team’s documentation in front of a live audience. And finally, the actual obstacle course with the robot the team designed, built and programmed.

The team’s next competition takes place in Missouri in March.