This weekend is the BC Season Opener and Qualifer at Alpha Secondary. Alpha is under construction.
You can drop off your Robots at the Entrance on the east side of the Gym, but all parking is in the lot at the West end of the school
Expanding competitive robotics for youth in BC
What a great way to wind up the year! 78 teams from the Pacific Northwest Region (PNWR) competed in two divisions. As it has since its inception, the A Division, an invitational for top VEX High School Robotics teams, sees world class competition with robots from BC, Alberta, and Washington State honed throughout the year. Division B, also open to any teams in from BC and adjacent jurisdictions, gives new and up-and-coming teams the opportunity to take part in a major event and gain experience side-by-side with the best teams in the region.
Without further ado, lets see our award winners!
Congratulations to TenTon Robotics team 1010X from the West Vancouver School District. They took first place in the Science Division and went on to place 5th in the finals at the tenth annual VEX Robotics World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky. Together with their alliance partners, 6007 Quantum Flux and 7700R Rolling Robots, 1010X won all of their matches in the Science Division, to earn their spot in the final competition. This hard working team also earned the Create Award for the Science Division and placed 40th in the Skills competition.
Eight high school teams represented BC at the Worlds, including teams from Vancouver, West Vancouver and the Comox Valley. In addition to 1010X, 3 more BC teams placed in the top third of their divisions: 2S Robosavages from Gladstone Secondary, 7842D NIDES (North Island Distance Education School) Navigators, and 1010Z, another TenTon team from West Van.
This year’s VEX Robotics World Championship hosted 1,400 teams from over 30 nations worldwide. Each team earned a spot at the Worlds by winning regional competitions. Close to 600 high school teams competed in 6 divisions, then division winners competed for the finals.
Demonstrating the international nature of the VEX program, the World Champion Alliance included teams from the United States and China and 1010X partners are from California:
Watch the Ten Ton’s trip to Worlds.
Watch the 2017 VEX Robotics High School Science Division Final.
In the High School VEX Robotics World Championship, Canada fielded 25 teams from BC, Alberta and Ontario. This year there were 564 teams in the High School Division, and a total of 1,400 team across all 5 programs.
This year’s VEX Robotics World Championship hosted 1,400 teams from over 30 nations worldwide. The week-long competition is a celebration of STEM education, the year-long work of each student-led robotics team, and diversity in the high-tech field of competitive robotics.
1404B Shocks from Toronto place second in the world. They led the VRC High School World Finalists Alliance, which included 985C Robohawks from Omaha, Nebraska and 6135W CHHS Bruins from Cecilia, Kentucky.
BC’s 1010X Ten Ton Robotics team placed 5th overall, after winning the Science Division. Ontario’s 1404B Shocks Robotics won the Math Division, allied with Team 16666B X.Robo from Hefei, China, and Team 9065C Phantom Robotics from Kansas City, Missouri.
In the Technology Division, Team 1114Y Simbotics, from Governor Simcoe Secondary in St. Catharines was a finalist, and Team Winston 211C, from Sir Winston Churchill Secondary in St. Catharines, Ontario was awarded the Sportsmanship Award.
Team 5225B – E-Bots from Oakville received the Community Award in the Arts Division. Another Oakville team, 2188A Robosource.net took 2nd place in the Skills Challenge.
In the VEX IQ Middle School program, team 555A Gladiators from KraftWerx in Brampton won the VEX IQ Challenge Robot Skills.
Click here for a list of the 2017 VEX Robotics World Champions and Excellence Award Winners. Visit the 2017 VEX Robotics World Championship Photo Archive to relive the excitement!
Click on the following links for details and full results from VEX Worlds 2017:
As we wrapped up the 2016/2017 Robotics year in BC, our teams, their successes in the BC Provincial and Pacific Northwest Regional Competitions, and the growth of student robotics in BC garnered significant media attention. Here’s a roundup of some great quotes, and the articles they came from.
The Vancouver Courier interviewed teams at Gladstone as they prepped for the Worlds, and tapped into how much effort students put in.
“To help with those nerves, students pour in hundreds of hours’ worth of leg work and go through close to 10 iterations of a single bot before it’s go time. The 2017 contest task was announced last fall, and from there, the methodical pre-scout began: combing over YouTube for design tips, exchanging ideas via online forums and liaising with other participants from as far off as China and New Zealand.”
Read the full article Vancouver students battle for bot supremacy
CBC also talked with Gladstone. Here are some great quotes from Paul Wallace, teacher and robotics coach at Gladstone:
“It’s wonderful to work in something where the kids are so engaged,” said Wallace. “I don’t have to do a lot of encouragement to work on the robots; it’s more like trying to get them to leave the room when I want to go home at nine o’clock.”
Read B.C. high school students heading to world robotics competition
And perhaps our favorite headline “ At Gladstone Secondary School, the robotics program has achieved a unique status: It’s both cool and nerdy at the same time.”
Finally, a proud coaching comment from Paul “… by the time students are in Grade 12, they know way more than he does about programming. “We can lead them and coach them and see when an idea is going haywire,” he said. “In general, I could not out-program the top kids in the room. They spend hundreds of hours on doing this.”
Read the rest of the Vancouver Sun article