WHA Students Fly the Flag for Scotland and the Local Community

The Rotary Club of Thornhill and District welcomed the WHA Glic Team along with their team coaches to our weekly meeting (Wednesday 12th June 2019), following their recent return home from the USA after taking part in the FIRST® LEGO® League competition at the World Robotics Festival in Detroit. This year after making it through to Scottish champions they progressed to the festival held in Detroit for the second year in succession and joined the top 108 teams from 40,000 in the world who went head to head in the competition.

FIRST® LEGO® League, which is a science and technology challenge aimed at 9-16 year olds, tasks teams to build a robot to tackle a series of missions, and create an innovative solution to a real world problem. This year’s INTO ORBITSM challenge was all about space – how humans survive for extended periods in this environment.

This year’s Glic (Gaelic for ‘wise’) members: Olivia Andreasen, Alex Bramley, Emily Cochran, Sorcha Corrigan, Abi Fletcher, John McKay and Luke McKay were awarded third prize in the competition for the “Innovative Mechanical Design of Their Robot”. Neil Corrigan, Glic’s Team Coach and Principal Teacher of Design and Technology at Wallace Hall Academy also scooped “The Best Coach Award”.

During the evening Neil and his team gave us a presentation and talked of their experience in Detroit while Emily demonstrated their invention they created which was a vacuum that could attach to an astronaut’s wrist to grip objects that would otherwise float away without gravity.After the presentation the team answered questions from the members one being where did they get the time to construct and perfect the robot and vacuum? as we were amazed by the time they put into the project, the team replied that most of the research and production was all done in their own time during breaks, lunches and after school.

Another question was where and what do they see themselves doing in the future? the replies ranged from chemical, electrical and mechanical engineering through to the scientific and medical fields. We feel that the teamwork, enthusiastic and confidence skills that they have all gained from these competitions will most certainly aid them in whatever future they hold.

The Rotary Club of Thornhill and District are proud to be associated with the team as a sponsor and wish to thank Neil and the team for taking time out to come along to our weekly meeting and giving us such a professional talk and presentation. Taking third prize out of 40,000 teams for “innovative mechanical design of their robot” is such a fantastic achievement for this team. The enthusiasm and positivity that these young people have is unbelievable and as a club we wish them every success in all that wish to achieve in their futures.

Follow the full story: 

https://www.wallacehall.co.uk/single-post/2019/05/23/Budding-young-engineers-win-at-global-FIRST®-LEGO®-League-World-Festival

A.S. 17-06-2019