A TEAM of inventive pupils from Newcastle West came out on top after waging robot wars on Shannonside.
Students from Killoughteen National School in Newcastle West secured the big win at the 10th annual Analog Devices Primary School Robotics Competition, which took place at Analog’s Raheen campus this past weekend.
The competition saw over 100 primary pupils from across the Mid West wage war with custom-designed sumo wrestling robots.
Teams comprising fifth and sixth class pupils from schools in Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary gathered on Saturday morning last as their robots entered the ring for a sumo-style showdown.
Liam Collins, Freya Smith, and Oisin O’Connor from Killoughteen National School were the outright winners on the day, with St Joseph’s National School, Ballybrown, taking the runner up position with their team of Cian O’Donoghue, Alex Clancy, and Tommy Hayes.
It was a second victory for Killoughteen, who previously took home the gold in 2018.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the competition. Over the past decade, Analog Devices has enabled nearly 9,000 students to take part in the event, where they learn to build and program a robot using LEGO kits.
For the first time, the programme expanded beyond Limerick, welcoming schools from across Munster to take part.
The competition day started with an advanced robotics workshop, before students faced the challenge of designing and programming bots for one-on-one bouts. In the afternoon, teams competed in pool stages, with top performers advancing to thrilling playoffs, where final points determined the winners.
