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Alliston high school’s robotics team gains attention of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

April 10, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

A robotics team from Banting Memorial High School in Alliston made a big impression at the one of the world’s largest trade fairs. 

Students attended the Hanover Messe (German for fair) in Germany, which ran March 31 to April 4, to run a demonstration of a robot goalie they built goalie that stops pucks using a high-tech design and camera that can read the trajectory of a puck.

The robot goalie exhibit attracted the attention of some high-ranking visitors.

While at the fair, the Banting team had a visit from German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and Canadian politician and diplomat Stéphane Dion.

Chancellor Scholz took a shot but missed the goal. The robot goalie, however, still dropped its pad to the ice to block the shots.

A German TV station taped the visit and reported: “At the booth of a Canadian exhibitor, Scholz was shown a robot goalie for ice hockey. To test him, he grabbed his stick himself – the puck missed the goal by a few centimetres. The Chancellor was accompanied on his tour by Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister, Stephan Wei.”

The Hanover Messe combines mechanical and electrical engineering with computer science to create new ideas for robot technology.

The robotics club is a popular club at Banting for students who have an interest in science and robotics. Each member of the team contributes in different ways to club projects.

Several parents who have different skills help by lending professional advice and experience to the students. Some former students who were part of the team when they were in high school also help out.

The Banting team was asked to create a robot for a film that was being produced.

It was such a success that the sports network TSN called them and asked if they could build a robot goalie. The team took the robot to the TV studio for a demonstration.

That led to an invitation to the Hanover Messe.

The team in Hanover has 10 students and four mentors. They have an interactive booth at the Hanover Messe with their robot goalie.

The international event acts as a huge industrial trade fair with companies from the mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, digital industries, and energy sector, presenting solutions for a high-performance world. More than 4,000 companies from around the world are involved with the fair.

“The most common question we get is ‘What university are you with?” said Banting Faculty member and robotics team leader Bryan Haas. “The kids’ response of ‘we are just in high school’ leaves people speechless. They are impressing people from around the world. It’s so amazing to watch. They are so professional, yet still kids.”

The Banting team are having a lot of fun at the fair while having the chance to show their ingenuity and robotics engineering skills.

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