My challenge today was judging the 33rd Ottawa Science and Engineering Olympics. Then I thought, "Why not write a blog post?" Sadly, I was stuck in the car without my laptop, which led to the second challenge of the day - writing this post on a touchscreen three-and-a-half inches wide.
There's always something refreshing about judging or just attending this type of contest. First you get away from the cynical business or bureaucratic world of work to experience the energy and enthusiasm of youth.
Second you get to see kids away from screens and video games. Those of you who are parents will know what I mean. This was a chance to see kids solving technical challenges through design, build and test stages.
I was judging the "bionic arm" event. I make a good portion of my living critiquing inventions, so judging a science and engineering competition was pretty much all in a day's work.
But this had a completely different feel. It was way more fun to see ideas come to life rather than a lifeless piece of government documentation granting rights to an idea. There was the panic of malfunction and the stress of competition, but it was more than compensated by the satisfaction derived by these budding engineers as they put their creations to the test.
By the way, Ben’s bionic arm was the winning middle school entry. It’s in the photo at the top of this post. Congratulations to all the participants. We need to keep talented, creative kids engaged in science and engineering. Our future depends on it.