After two months of building and coding their robots, 21 students competed against each other for a learning opportunity for the summer.
Dana Inc.’s African-American Resource Group, in partnership with Purdue University, on Wednesday played host to its inaugural Robotics Challenge, a youth robotics competition meant to spark interest in STEM subjects in minority students.
The African-American Resource Group is one of the auto manufacturer’s several business resource groups meant to help “drive and attract the best talent in the market,” said Byron Foster, president of light vehicle drive systems at Dana.
“The point of the competition is really to promote STEM programs and just get kids interested in engineering,” Mr. Foster said in reference to science, technology, engineering, and math. “Hopefully, one day they become Dana engineers.”
The competition, which featured sixth through 10th-grade students, had seven teams of three students program their robots to perform specific challenges in an attempt to earn the most points.
Students from local schools, such as Explorers Academy of Science and Technology near the Toledo Heights branch library and Horizon Science Academy, were at Dana's world headquarters in Maumee. They joined students from schools in Michigan, Indiana, and Pennsylvania in the competition.
Dana Inc. engineers were sent to each selected school to guide the team while building its robot.
Teams competed for a chance to participate in Purdue University’s summer engineering workshop, which is in June for sixth through ninth-grade students, and July for high school sophomores and juniors.
Holland students Kaylin Copley, 15, and sisters Mariyah Sloan, 16, and Amiyah Sloan, 13, said the competition introduced them to engineering.
Young Copley, a student at Toledo School for the Arts, enjoyed coding their robot, and young Mariyah Sloan, who is homeschooled, enjoyed building it.
“We just wanted to try robotics since we’ve never done it before,” young Copley said. “We just wanted to see how it would end up. We all came together as a group to do it.”
Mariyah Sloan said she learned she doesn’t like to code when they were building their robot.
“It [coding] was very frustrating,” she said.
Amiyah Sloan, a homeschooled student, learned she might not be as interested in robotics as her teammates.
“I liked suggesting things though they didn’t really take all of my suggestions,” she said.
Bryan Williams, assistant quality manager at Dana Toledo Driveline and robotics coach for Horizon Science Academy, said he enjoyed working with his team.
He said he’s a product of Toledo Public Schools and is excited to give back to the community.
“It’s just important to be able to do the work that I do and reach out to some of the kids in the community,” Mr. Williams said.
First Published May 10, 2023, 9:59 p.m.
