Bhavishyaa Vignesh, a Grade 4 student at Post’s Corners Public School in Oakville, has been piling up medals recently while participating in various Skills Ontario virtual competitions.
Since the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year, Skills Ontario have hosted 16 virtual competitions as part of its #SkillsAtHome challenge series. The competitions incorporate Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Bhavishyaa has taken part in five of them, finishing first in two of them, second in two of them, and third in one.
In the most recent #SkillsRobotChallenge competition on Dec. 16, where she placed third, Bhavishyaa created a robot, largely made out of lego pieces, designed to make contactless deliveries of medicine and food to patients in hospitals. She used various tools such as Microbit, Gigglebot, MakeyMakey and Scratch to devise her robot.
“My idea was to make my robot go door-to-door in hospitals delivering the items that the patients need, so that there would not be any spread of a virus and hence, no outbreaks in hospitals,” she says. “I wanted to help frontline workers in any way that I could during this pandemic time, so I thought of developing this robot using the STEM kits I had.”
While she appreciated participating in all of the Skills Ontario virtual competitions, Bhavishyaa says she especially loves competing in the field of robotics.
“I like robotics because you can make anything you want. You can make something where humans can't go in person and perform tasks. I love STEM challenges. My mom always tells me that giving 100 per cent is more important than winning.”
Bhavishyaa’s mom Suchitra fully supports her daughter’s passion for STEM.
“Bhavishyaa has always loved STEM challenges and never misses one. My husband and I believe that kids should try out their own interests. Her love for space and coding make her try new things. We feel very proud of her achievement and will always be there for her when she needs us.”
So, what are Bhavishyaa’s career goals?
“I am a coding and space enthusiast,” she says, noting she’s learning HTML/CSS, JS and Python coding systems. One day I want to code for the Canadian Space Agency. I am already working toward this goal to make my dream come true.”
