A local high school robotics team in Chatham-Kent is looking to recruit some new talent -- and some more donors -- as it powers up for another season.
CK Cyber Pack team member Megan Gooch said there is an open house at St. Clair College in Chatham starting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 3.
"We're hoping to get a lot of grade 9 students, and just younger-aged students so that we can build the team for years to come," said Gooch, a second-year team member in grade 12. "This year, we're just hoping again to build a successful robot that we're proud of and that can perform well in competitions."
The team has already started meeting for the year, but there is plenty of time for new members to get up to speed. Gooch said they won't know any of the specifics of the tasks their robot needs to accomplish until early in January.
"Last year, the theme was power-up, so the robot had to collect boxes and shoot them into different levels," said Gooch. "This year, it's space-themed, so we're not quite sure what to expect, but we're really excited."
While they're waiting on those specifics, the team will be focusing on fundraising -- their expenses start to add up quickly and total thousands of dollars every year.
"With parts and tools and getting our team to the competition, fundraising is a big part of it with sponsorships and financing," said Gooch.
Becoming a team member can open up some career opportunities for students, too. Gooch said they have seen a number of graduates going off to school in related fields.
"A few are going into engineering, some are going into computer science," said Gooch. "That has been a common theme throughout alumni for our team, they tend to go into the STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] fields and it really gives you hands-on experience about robotics and programming."
The open house on October 3 is open to all high-school aged students in Chatham-Kent -- free pizza and refreshments will also be served.