A new robotics summer camp will soon launch in Sarnia to help fund upcoming competitions involving local students.
Week one of Camp RoboLeague STEM summer camp will begin on July 8.
The five-day programs will be held at School Secondary Catholic Saint-François-Xavier, 901 The Rapids Parkway, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
There are six different camps available, spanning through to mid-August.
Depending on the week, the cost ranges upwards of $225 per child.
"All of the proceeds from the camps are going to go toward supporting our competitive robotics team for the 2024-2025 season," said Mastermind Youth Foundation Co-Founder Sachin Parmar. "We encourage anyone who's interested to sign up regardless of their current skill level because it's very much about learning and getting the feel of an actual competition. If that's something they like, then they would have the opportunity to join one of our community robotics teams."
Parmar and Jacques Villeneuve recently created Mastermind Youth Foundation and launched a competitive robotics team last year. The "Francobots" included students from École Secondaire Catholique Saint-François-Xavier and École Scondaire Franco-Jeunesse.
"Everybody was quite new at it so just being able to go to the provincial championship was a huge accomplishment for us," Parmar said.
Parmar said Camp RoboLeague will focus on LEGO robotics. Children between the ages of seven and 13 (or six and 12) will face problem-solving challenges and will compete in a tournament at the end of the week.
"During the week they'll learn how to design, build, learn coding to program the robots and then finally compete against other teams — other groups of kids, at the end of the week," said Parmar.
So far summer camp registration has been low, but Parmar suspects that may be because of how new the foundation is.
A contest has been launched to help boost registration, where participants will have a chance to win a free week of summer camp.
Details about the contest can be found on the foundation's website.
Parmar said Mastermind Youth Foundation is a non-profit education organization, focused on helping children reach their full potential through competitive STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) programs.