April 6, 2009
DSBN Schools Go South to Compete for Robotics Championship
The countdown to Atlanta is on!
Robotics teams from Governor Simcoe Secondary in St. Catharines and Westlane Secondary in Niagara Falls will again travel stateside to compete for the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) world championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The competition runs from April 16-18.
The reigning world champion Simbotics team earned their ticket to Atlanta by winning gold at the Greater Toronto Regional Competition held in late March. “The Regionals featured some very stiff competition, but our students developed a robot well suited to the game conditions and stayed focused throughout the tournament,” says Greg Phillips, Governor Simcoe Teacher.
Nearly 60 schools from across Canada and the U.S. took part in the Regional competition.
“The students at Westlane also did an amazing job at the Regionals. The team held their own against a very strong field of competitors. The Spartonics will be a force to be reckoned with in Atlanta,” says Kevin Graham, DSBN Technology Consultant.
Both schools are taking some time to repair and refurbish their battle weary robots before shipping them off to Atlanta where they will compete against hundreds of other robotics teams across the world.
Each year, FIRST stages short games played by remote controlled robots. This year’s game, called “Lunacy”, honours the 40th anniversary of NASA’s moon landing. Lunacy pits teams against each other on a large slippery field. The object of the game is for each robot to collect and unload the special “orbit balls” into trailers attached to each opposing team’s robot.
Good luck to both teams!