“Skill Challenge Mechatronics” is a four day event which took place from November 22 to 25, of which two days are an intensive (virtual) competition starting at 6 a.m. EST. There were 24 teams competing from 18 different countries. Marko Gunja and Nickolas de Boer of Humber College represented Team Canada.

We are extremely proud to inform our Humber community they placed 4th overall! It is a long journey to get there with endless hours of practice, intense focus and commitment. We want to acknowledge Skills Coach, Mateusz Cwalinski, a former WorldSkills competitor and current Humber student, for his coaching and leadership. As a special acknowledgement, Chief Expert Michael Linn from Festo Didactic called Team Canada “Innovative” for their ability to demonstrate how the simulated equipment was interacting with the physical Human Machine Interface. A big thanks to Festo Didactic, a member of Humber’s Advanced Manufacturing Skills Consortium, for their support.

In this event, competitors competed virtually on two levels:

Level 1: Troubleshoot an automated system in a simulation program (FluidSIM) which consisted of problem solving the electrical and pneumatic diagrams while also adjusting conditions such as force, flow, pressure, and power for proper operations. Then answer knowledge based questions related to the system.

Level 2: Program a logical sequence in a virtual station in a simulation software (CIROS) with a physical PLC and HMI. Then answer knowledge based questions related to physical properties of an MPS station and industrial robots (in a virtual setting).

The competition focused on Work Integration & Management, Team work, Systems Integration, Developing Mechatronics Systems, Networking, Digital twin, Programming, Problem Solving, Maintenance and Simulation in a virtual environment.

Let’s give a big congratulations to the team as they continue to train for the 46th WorldSkills Competition- October 2022- in Shanghai, China.

Neal Mohammed
Director, Barrett Centre for Technology Innovation