Robokids Team 1305 SophieA key qualifier for the World Championships in Robotics starts tomorrow (Friday) at Nipissing University.

The event which features 31 teams include two local squads, Team 1305 and Team 5807, will be competing in a regional event at the Robert J Surtees Athletic Centre.

Organizers say the competition this weekend is FIRST Stronghold where robots compete in a medieval playground and attempt to capture their opponents tower.

Nancy Dewar-Stenning is the mentor for Team 1305 and the tournament director for this competition.

She says it’s good the local teams got a competition under their belts recently at the first event in Oshawa.

Dewar-Stenning says they got the bugs out in Oshawa and they wanted to do that before presenting in front of their family and friends.

She says there are a number of ways teams can qualify for the worlds including winning the chairman’s award, being on the winning alliance, capturing the engineering inspiration award and winning the rookie all star award.