Ian Dinnebier

14 June 2024

Redgate takes on RoboCon: inspiring the next generation through robotics

At Redgate, making a difference to the wider community where we work and encouraging the next generation of innovators is at the heart of our Giving Something Back initiative. Founded in 2015, the initiative covers charitable and volunteering activities by Redgate and the people who work here.

As part of Giving Something Back every Redgater is entitled to one volunteer day each year working on a charitable activity. The aim of the volunteer day is for our people to bring their own time and skills to the community, rather than raising money or making a direct donation.

This year, along with Elijah Rose, I spent my day volunteering at RoboCon 2024. RoboCon is a free and accessible robotics competition aimed at GCSE students run by the Robotics Society in Cambridge. Redgate is an annual sponsor of the competition, and we volunteered to help judge the competition at the finals held in April.

Attending the finals was great fun. 13 teams made it to the finals, each of which had designed and made an autonomous robot that could compete in the final arena game of “Hot Potato”. The aim of the game was to get rid of all the potatoes from the team’s potato patch and retrieve the prized jacket potato from the patch opposite. During each round, the student teams’ robots delivered a mixture of success and varying degrees of entertaining failures (including robots that did nothing, confused robots, robot injuries and robots capturing other robots like a potato)!

It was great to attend, as it gave us the opportunity to see one of the charitable initiatives that Redgate supports come to fruition, and it was inspiring to see young people engaging in technical activities in their spare time to learn new skills and share their experiences across a variety of disciplines (including engineering, mechanics, coding, electronics and aesthetic design).

Next year, the Robotics Society is considering inviting sponsors of RoboCon to enter their own robots into the competition, so robotics enthusiasts in Cambridge should keep an eye out for more details in future.

The Giving Something Back initiative reflects our company values, and Redgate’s commitment to supporting charity and community. We believe in those things for their own sake, but we also believe in the wellbeing, job satisfaction and company culture benefits of encouraging our employees to use their skills and passions to give support to the wider community.

If you’d like to learn more about Redgate’s Giving Something Back initiative or volunteer day, discover the career opportunities we have available and get involved.