Huntsville High School (HHS) officially has a champion robotics team.
The local team won the 2025 First Robotics Competition, which took place at Nipissing University in North Bay last weekend (March 22 and 23).
The competition hosts high school students who showcase their abilities in science, technology, engineering and math.
Ian McTavish, HHS teacher and lead mentor for Hoya Robotics Team 4152, says despite facing strong competitors, they secured a place in the playoffs.
“We went undefeated in the playoffs and ended up winning the entire event as well as winning an award for industrial design for the quality of our robot and our manufacturing processes,” says McTavish.
McTavish says there are about 40 kids on the team, but they ended up taking just 25 to the competition, adding there were 32 teams in total.
“It is absolutely packed. There were over a thousand people in the stands when we were in the playoffs, which was fun,” says McTavish.
He explains each school makes their own robot, and at the event, the team is randomly put into games with other robots and the students must design and build the robot for that game.
This year’s game was called Reefscape.
“The coral game piece is a six-foot, four-inch diameter PVC pipe. So, you have the score that on a reef, which means your robot has to be able to pick them up and place them really precisely,” says McTavish.
He says they partnered with local industries like Seal for Life, Kimberly-Clark, Blackburn Industrial, and Panol-am, which allowed students to learn from some of the engineers and technicians at those companies.
“There were a lot of tears,” he says. “Some of these kids have been involved for four or five years.”
He says the team won a banner, which they hung at the high school, and a couple of trophies.
“But the bonus is we’ve ranked high enough to go to the provincial championships,” says McTavish. “It’s a really good opportunity for kids to develop skills that will help them get careers.”
The provincial championships will take place in Mississauga next weekend.
