Kits Robotics Club

For 2005-6, the Kits Robotics Club have again formed a team to enter a Robotics competition held in Toronto.

The team does fundraising, and has received some funding support from PAC in the past.

2005-6 the Robotics Team has received $25,000 financial support from GM Canada.

2005 -6 financial support for female members of the Robotics Team to travel to Toronto has been made available from a fund at UBC that supports women interested in engineering.

Kits teachers supporting the Robotics Team are Mr. Fullerton and Ms. DeOliveira.

 See
http://www.firstroboticscanada.org/portal/index.php
   



From April 3, 2006 Kits News Bulletin:

*Robotics Return from Canada First Robotics in Mississauga - Report from Teacher Ryan Fullerton

* History of Demon Robotics

2002, 2003: participant in First Canadian Robotics Championship
2005 : participant in US First Robotics competition, Toronto regional Competition  (finished 63 out of 66 teams)                                                                                               2006: participant US First Robotics competition, Toronto Regional Competition (finished 33 out of 74 teams)

In fall 2004 we were approached by UBC Computer Science Department, asking if we were interested in competing in the US First competition, as they had secured funding from General Motors of Canada to sponsor a high school team in Vancouver.  We received approx. $18000 from GM to participate and help cover the cost of competing.  The members of the Robotics Club fundraised an additional $8000 dollars to enable us to travel to Toronto to compete. 

In fall 2005, General Motors of Canada offered to extend sponsorship, and sponsored us directly.  This year General Motors donated nearly $30000 to the Kitsilano Demon Robotics Club, paying for all of our expenses related to the Robotics Competition.

At this years Toronto Regional our team of 9 students, 2 mentors (Kitsilano Robotics club graduates), and 2 teachers, came together to meet the challenge of playing Robotic basketball.  Our team faced many challenges at the competition, as we had an untested/unproven robot to work with.  We spent all day Thursday at the event working out kinks, and getting the robot to pass technical inspection for the competition.  During Friday's competition we participated in 8 matches, finishing the day with a 4-4 win-lose record (good enough for a 31st place ranking).  Our ability to play tenacious defense is what carried us through the competition.  After Saturday's final 2 rounds of competition, we finished with an overall record of 5-5, for a final ranking of 33rd out of the 74 participating teams.

The Toronto Regional is considered one of the toughest rounds for qualifying for the Championship in Atlanta, as it has the highest number of participating teams.  There were 2 teams from BC, 2 teams from Alberta, 1 team from Quebec, 1 team from the United Kingdom, and dozens of teams from Ontario and the North East region of the United States.

Members of this years Demon Robotics Teams traveling to Toronto: Tessa V, Mira L, Willy J, Alex B, Vahram D, Alex W, Patrick K, Max M, Shen (Gaelen) S, and Kirk Ri (mentor), Aleyah Z (mentor), Ms. De Oliveira (teacher sponsor), and Mr. Fullerton (teacher sponsor)

This is the link to the event results site http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2006/regional/gtor.htm <https://webmail.vsb.bc.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2006/regional/gtor.htm> . It contains information about the event, a list of teams participating, and a link to the results page (not updated to reflect Saturday's matches yet).

Congratulations to our students, graduate coaches and teachers for a fine effort.  We are proud of you!






Kits PAC Fundraising Committee