Challenge drives students to learn software programming

As several of Windsor’s top minds in technology shared their knowledge at the University of Windsor on Saturday morning, the next generation of experts worked hard to get their wheels turning.

About 20 high school students participated in the youth programming event held as part of the annual Windsor-Essex DevFest.

Ron McKenzie, a teacher at Vincent Massey Secondary School, helped students transform wheels, circuits and sensors into functioning model cars.

“So, what we're looking at is the interface between software and hardware, in simple terms, how to program a robot,” McKenzie said. “So we're starting from barebones with no knowledge at all.”

The challenge presented meant that students had to learn the technical and digital skills to work the car's lights and motor. Once completed, the vehicle must avoid obstacles and follow lines.

McKenzie said he makes the instructions “a little vague” to force students to think about the process. Along the way, McKenzie and a group of volunteers helped students overcome difficulties building the cars.

For McKenzie, the goal is to allow students to open their eyes to the possibility of programming as a career.

“There's a lot of people who do a little bit of programming in high school, but they have no idea what this can lead to,” McKenzie said. “So there's a whole field here of interfacing with hardware and software where they wouldn't have imagined and sometimes they do this, and they get excited by it.”

A common misconception, he noted, is the idea that programming forces people into a cubicle rather than having hands on opportunities.

“It’s about letting them know that there are people who go out and they make physical robots, whether it controls a car, controls a security system or controls an artificial limb,” he said.

“So, the idea of just expanding their knowledge. They don't have ideas that are false, they're just incomplete.”

While not every student will go on to be a programmer, McKenzie said their goal was to improve the community and spread technical knowledge to those who were interested.