STUDENTS from a County Limerick primary school wrestled their way to victory at the 8th Annual Analog Devices Primary School Robotics competition on Saturday.
The day-long STEM-inspired challenge, organised by Analog Devices, saw over 120 primary school children go to battle with their self-designed sumo wrestling robots.
Grace Burton, Sadhbh Magnier and CJ Enright from Scoil Mhuire in Broadford won the overall competition with Cian Flanagan, Caelan Tan, David Cronin and Aiden Danagher from Scoil Fhionáin in Kilfinane in second place.
Children between the ages of ten and 12 from 32 schools across Limerick City and County gathered at the Analog Devices campus in Raheen to build and programme their own robots. Their robotic creations were then pitted against each other, sumo-style, that afternoon in a series of knock-out rounds with points awarded for teamwork as well as design and innovation.
The children were encouraged to work as part of a team, express creativity, problem solve and have fun while also learning key STEM principles.
Each school that registered received a free Robotics workshop where fifth and sixth class students learned to build and programme a robot. After building their robot in the classroom, each team competed against each other for the chance to represent their school in the final.
Analog Process Development Director Ann O’Sullivan said that through the primary school robotics programme, students from all backgrounds get access to the fundamentals of robotic design and high-quality STEM education.
“We were delighted to work together with LearnIt to encourage children to embrace their curiosity and problem-solving skills in a truly fun environment.”
Now in its eight year, more than 6,000 students across Limerick city and country have participated in the Analog Devices Primary School Robotics Competition.
Previous winners include Scoil Ide (2015), St Patrick’s Girls NS (2016), Our Lady Queen of Peace NS (2017), Killoughteen NS (2018), Scoil Mhuire Broadford (2019), St Patricks N.S Bruree (2020), as well as St Patrick’s National School, Dublin Road (2022).
