Aspiring Willoughby engineers Noah and Jacob St. Jean didn鈥檛 walk away from the world robotics championships in Texas with a first-place win.

But the R.E. Mountain Secondary siblings were still triumphant on an unexpected front.

The duo are part of a community robotics team, called #16267 Forces Unknown, made up of 10 Lower Mainland high school students. The team recently competed on the international platform in Texas.

Nearly 7,000 teams competed all around the world during the 2022-2023 robotics season, with only the top 192 teams advancing to the world championships in Houston, explained their mother, Erin St. Jean.

鈥淪o going to Houston means we were in the top three per cent of all [those] teams worldwide. Wow!鈥� Mom boasted, noting more than 18,000 students from 59 countries competed for that chance with their team-built robots.

The local team 鈥� one of two from B.C. (the other from Victoria) invited to Texas 鈥� finished ranked 32 in robot games and 12 in individual robot performances.

鈥淣ot too shabby,鈥� Erin said. 鈥淒id they win first place? Nope. But it was still an awesome life experience.鈥�

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There was a related win the Forces Unknown team will take, in connection with this competition.

One of the ways they were attempting to fundraise for their trip was to enter a video in a WorkSafeBC contest.

The video, entitled Rob鈥檚 First Day, stars both Jacob and Noah. Jacob also wrote the script, acted as both of the puppets, and did all the video editing, Erin explained.

鈥淗e is a creative dynamo,鈥� she said of her youngest boy.

Turns out they tied for first in the province-wide student safety video contest (in the Grade 8 to 10 level) and earned a total of $4,500 and the opportunity to advance to the national level on competition, explained Robin Schooley, an occupational health and safety consultant from WorkSafe, who coordinated the contest.

鈥淚n total, we received 73 entries, so you should feel particularly proud given the tough competition this year! Your video was an original, creative, and fun interpretation of the contest theme. So many of our judges loved it,鈥� Schooley told the local team.

Their video will now be entered in the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety鈥檚 national contest, where the winner will be announced in June.

鈥淪o, I guess you win some, you lose some,鈥� shared Mom.

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