South Molton Community College Crowned Champions at 2025 North Devon Robotics Challenge
Petroc’s engineering workshops thrummed with whirring motors and Year 7 excitement on Wednesday 26 March, as 32 pupils from six schools across Devon battled for top honours in the third annual North Devon Robotics Challenge, sponsored by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
Four challenges, six weeks of coding grit!
Over the past half‑term, after‑school and lunchtime clubs became testing grounds where teams, each comprising two pairs of Year 7 students, tackled four set briefs:
- Concept Robot Design – create an original machine to maintain roads, rivers or land.
- Figure‑of‑8 Speed Test – programme an Edison robot to loop flawlessly for one minute.
- Slalom Navigation – weave through an obstacle‑strewn track in record time.
- Brick‑Launcher Build – augment the robot with LEGO to fling a brick at the highest target.
A bonus “maze dash” using infrared handsets capped the day’s events.
Racking up three first place finishes, South Molton Community College lifted the 2025 trophy, edging past runners‑up Blundell’s School.
Judges drawn from the IET Devon & Cornwall Network, Firefly Robotics Educational Charity, and STEM Ambassadors Olivia and Clive, praised every team’s environmental focus. “These youngsters proved that innovation and sustainability can start as early as Year 7,” said lead judge Dr Helen Richards.
Organisers thanked Petrocfor hosting, while IET supplied all prizes. As the robots were packed away, one exhausted coder summed up the day: “I learned more from one bug in my code than a whole week in class, and fixing it felt awesome!”
With plans already forming for 2026, the North Devon Robotics Challenge continues to spark curiosity, and perhaps future engineers, across North Devon.
