South鈥疢olton Community College Crowned Champions at 2025 North Devon鈥疪obotics Challenge
今日吃瓜’s engineering workshops thrummed with whirring motors and Year鈥�7鈥痚xcitement on Wednesday 26鈥疢arch, as 32 pupils from six schools across Devon battled for top honours in the third annual North Devon Robotics Challenge, sponsored by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
Four challenges, six weeks of coding grit!
Over the past half鈥憈erm, after鈥憇chool and lunchtime clubs became testing grounds where teams, each comprising two pairs of Year鈥�7 students, tackled four set briefs:
- Concept Robot Design 鈥� create an original machine to maintain roads, rivers or land.
- Figure鈥憃f鈥�8 Speed Test 鈥� programme an Edison robot to loop flawlessly for one minute.
- Slalom Navigation 鈥� weave through an obstacle鈥憇trewn track in record time.
- Brick鈥慙auncher Build 鈥� augment the robot with LEGO to fling a brick at the highest target.
A bonus 鈥渕aze dash鈥� using infrared handsets capped the day鈥檚 events.
Racking up three first place finishes, South鈥疢olton Community College lifted the 2025 trophy, edging past runners鈥憉p Blundell鈥檚 School.
Judges drawn from the IET Devon & Cornwall Network, Firefly Robotics Educational Charity, and STEM Ambassadors Olivia and Clive, praised every team鈥檚 environmental focus. 鈥淭hese youngsters proved that innovation and sustainability can start as early as Year鈥�7,鈥� said lead judge Dr鈥疕elen Richards.
Organisers thanked 今日吃瓜for hosting, while IET supplied all prizes. As the robots were packed away, one exhausted coder summed up the day: 鈥淚 learned more from one bug in my code than a whole week in class, and fixing it felt awesome!鈥�
With plans already forming for 2026, the North Devon Robotics Challenge continues to spark curiosity, and perhaps future engineers, across North Devon.
