Oakville Santa Claus Parade 2011

This past weekend, November 19, we participated in the Oakville Santa Claus Parade. The theme of the float was "All I want for Christmas", and what we want for Christmas is robots! We made sandwich boards that spell out happy holidays that we wore to inspire the crowd for the holiday season. There were also Lego creations and robots from the show "Animal Mechanicals" on the float. Walking alongside the float there was Buzz LightYear and C-3PO. To create the float, we used our best teamwork skills to accomplish the many tasks, working to further our knowledge in design and machinery.

FLL Practice Tournament

On Sunday, November 20, from 12:30 to 5:30, O.T. hosted a practice FLL (First Lego League) tournament. 15 teams got to participate in 4 practice matches and practice time on the boards.  The teams were judged on their technical aspects as well as their team’s core values.  The team presented solutions to a variety of problems and got the opportunity for feedback directly from the judges on many things including their presentation, core values, and technical skills.  For many of the participants, it was a great introduction to the world of robotics, and our robots (HANK and FRED) were greatly appreciated.  All the teams showed great teamwork and friendly competition.  All in all, it was a great success.  Great job, everyone!

OTHS At Robots Rule Weekend

As we start a new the robotics season with 74 team members, both male and female, we have already participated in many successful events. On November 13, 2011, we actively participated at the Ontario Science Centre Robots Rule weekend, where we demonstrated our robot and answered questions of the hundreds of people who attended the event. The little kids loved us!

Team 1334 Presents at Robotics Symposium

This weekend team 1334 participated in the second annual FIRST Robotics Symposium held at St. Mildred’s Lightbourn School in Oakville, Ontario. The symposium offered great presentations and seminars on many different topics, all which were geared towards building great FRC and FLL teams. Among the many presenters were four of our own team members who gave an excellent seminar on community outreach. They answered questions and gave great ideas to the other teams on how to maximize their community outreach initiatives. One of our mentors, Avrim Katzman of Sheridan College, gave a very interesting and entertaining presentation on animation. The symposium brought FRC teams from across Ontario and as far away as Pittsburgh together and gave us a chance to share ideas and information. Everyone who attended had a great time and learned something new. Congratulations to all presenters and thank you St. Mildred’s for hosting the event

1334 Chosen to Beta Test 2012 FIRST Software!

We are happy to announce that FIRST Robotics Team 1334 has been selected yet again this year to beta test the FIRST control system software for the 2012 season! Being chosen to Beta test is an honour as very few FIRST teams are selected each year to participate, and we are proud to have been chosen 3 years in a row. We once again look forward to the challenge of providing accurate information and innovative ideas to the FIRST software designers and other FIRST teams.

Stay tuned and we'll keep you updated on our progress!

OCT Recognizes FIRST

In the September 2011 issue of "Professionally Speaking" the magazine of The Ontario College of Teachers.

Michael Benedict writes about the FIRST Robotics experience and the lessons for life and for learning it provides to students.

Select the link provided to read what Michael Benedict wrote about FIRST.

http://professionallyspeaking.oct.ca/september_2011/features/robots.aspx

Red Devils Win Innovation Nation Robotics Competition!

The winning team at the Innovation Nation Robotics Competition, from Oakville Trafalger High School in Oakville, Ont., operate their robot on location in Huntsville, Ont., July 18. Team members Eric Atkinson and Evelyn Wainewright manipulate Xbox controllers while a crouching Nick Bandiera, operates another device. Courtesy Nick Whittaker/OTHS Robotics (from CBC News, July 19, 2011)

On July 19, the OTHS Red Devils were awarded first prize in the Innovation Nation Robotics Competition held at Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario. The competition was just one event featured in a conference hosted by the St. Joseph’s Healthcare Centre for Surgical Invention and Innovation which included presentations by leading academics, businesses and innovators in the field of robotics. The conference emphasized the importance of collaboration between disciplines and the challenges of making a good idea into a marketable product.

Our team competed against high school teams from Abbey Park in Oakville and Our Lady of Lourdes High School in Guelph (FRC Team 2609) as well as the York University Rover team, Laurentian University’s Lunabot and the Automated Transport System from Seneca College. In addition to demonstrating our robots many functions, we also made a convincing case for practical uses of our robot’s technology in the field of medicine. Congratulations to Abbey Park Robotics for winning best high school presentation and Team Production from Laurentian for winning best university presentation. We learned an incredible amount from the other fine robotics presentations and were inspired by the career possibilities that were explored in the enthusiastic talks of the renowned guest speakers.

Team 1334 - In the Community

Team 1334 participated in the recent July Midnight Madness event, enthusiastically sharing FIRST with the Oakville community.

Now in its 30th year,  Midnight Madness is Downtown Oakville’s largest retail event of the year, drawing a crowd of over 50,000 to enjoy a variety of community performances and sharing new activities.

We were located on Thomas Street in front of Circus Chocolates, a team sponsor. People young and old participated in the hands-on operation of the FRC and FLL robotics creations made by the FRC teams 1334 (Oakville Trafalgar) and 3161 (Holy Trinity) and FLL team 3663 (E-Bots).  Many people previously unaware were pleasantly surprised to see the youth actively involved in such an amazing program offering promoting Science and Technology and had lots of fun operating the robots. We can anticipate many more new recruits to FIRST as a result of this exposure.

Thank you to all who dropped by our booth.

OTHS Robotics Attends the Canada Wide Science Fair

On May 19, team 1334 gave a series of demonstrations which were viewed by hundreds of students and teachers attending the finals of the Canada Wide Science Fair held at the Seneca College Newnham campus. We showed off HANK by expertly hanging tubes and deploying our minibot--skills that were well practiced during the last few months in our FIRST LOGO MOTION regional and championship matches. Team members also introduced audience members to the goals and values of FIRST, and much enthusiasm was generated for starting new FRC and FLL teams.  We also had a chance to view some great science projects, and it was an inspiring day for all involved.

Success in St. Louis!

The Red Devils returned from the FIRST international championship in St. Louis  (April 27-30) with an impressive top 25% finish in our division. We came in 22nd out of 88 teams, and we had some tough competition! Our former team captain, Nick Bandiera was chosen as a Dean's List Award winner for his outstanding student contributions to FIRST. Nominated by our team, Nick competed with 3,500 other FIRST Dean's List nominees and was one of only ten to receive this honour. FIRST Team 1334 members had a great time, and this experience was a great opportunity to learn from other teams from around the world! Even though we were incredibly busy scouting, fine tuning the robot and trying to take in all the amazing technology around us, we did manage to see the famous St. Louis landmark Arch and even got to see the Black Eyed Peas in concert at the FIRST World Championships! We are already planning for next season, using all we learned in St. Louis to increase our chances for success next year. A sincere thank you to all our sponsors and many supporters-we couldn't have done it without you!!

The Devils Featured in Igus Press Release

The Red Devils were featured in an Igus press release this month.  Igus is a diamond level sponsor of this year's competition.  Igus parts were used on our elevator, and on our minibot deployment.

The full press release can be seen here

The Devils do it Again!

FIRST Team 1334 competed at the Waterloo Regional, where we qualified for the World Championships in St. Louis for the 3^rd year in a row! We also competed at the Greater Toronto Regional West competition. The Greater Toronto Regional was split into 2 regionals this year - West and East – with the action alternating between the playing areas. The Discovery channel, a leading sponsor of FIRST, broadcast both Regionals live.

It’s been a record year for us so far and we’ve won a number of awards, including:

Greater Toronto West Regional results:

Creativity in Design Award sponsored by Xerox for our mini-bot and deployment system

Regional Finalist Award for finishing second in game play; we placed second to the reigning World Champion team who also holds the world record for most consecutive Regional wins – now 11

Honourable Mention in the Safety category for the first time in the team’s history we were recognized for our Safety initiatives

Nicholas Bandiera, our Captain’s Advisor and last year’s Team Captain, was selected as a Dean’s List Finalist! This award is given to only 2 students at each Regional competition. Nicholas is an outstanding role model for FIRST and will go on to compete in St. Louis for one of 10 coveted spots on The Dean’s List with roughly 100 other students selected from the 20,000 who compete in FIRST Robotics Competition worldwide. FIRST Team 1334 is now one of only 2 teams in Canada to have had 2 students selected as Dean’s List Finalists. We couldn’t be more proud of Nicholas.

Waterloo Regional results:

• Engineering Inspiration Award qualifying the team to compete at the World Championships in St. Louis

One of our founding mentors, Mr. George Chisholm, was honoured with a Regional Woodie Flowers Award and will compete for the Championship Woodie Flowers Award in St. Louis. Mr. Chisholm is the first mentor from our team to be honoured with a Woodie Flowers Award and we were thrilled to see him recognized in this way!

As we said above, it’s been a record-breaking year so far for FIRST Team 1334 out of Oakville Trafalgar High School and we leave for St. Louis anticipating a great performance.

Thank you to all of our sponsors, mentors and volunteers for your support, we couldn’t have gotten this far without you.

Waterloo Regional a Great Success!

We have just arrived home after a long three days of competition at the Waterloo Regional, with barrels of good news!

Our team received the prestigious Engineering Inspiration" award, for our tireless efforts promoting science and technology to youth. As a result, our team has qualifed for the international FIRST Robotics Championship in St. Louis at the end of April!

Current robotics mentor George Chisholm was honoured with the "Woodie Flowers" award, for his exceptional work with our robotics team. George's name was submitted by the students as a potential candidate. The student's essay & submission will now be sent to compete for international recognition in St. Louis as well! It's no surprise that George Chisholm, a founding member of 1334 and retired OT teacher, won this award - his passion for the team is undeniable, and his hard work at teaching the students is inspirational.

On the competition front - our team made it all the way to the semi-finals, before being defeated by former world champions (and the eventual tournament winners). Our final regional games are schedule for this Friday (9am-5pm) & Saturday (9am-3pm) at the Hershey Center in Mississauga! If you have never been to a robotics competition before, it must be seen to believed! The screaming students, the heated
competition, the exciting announcers - no description can do this experience justice - just come see it!

LOGO MOTION!

On January 8, the FIRST Challenge for 2011 was unveiled during the annual FIRST kickoff broadcast, which we watched with other Halton FRC teams at the New Street Education Centre in Burlington. This year's game is called LOGO MOTION. Robots must hang large inflated plastic game pieces, one for each shape of the FIRST triangle-circle-square logo, on a score board with pegs that range from just over 2 feet to 9 feet off of the ground. The game ends with each large robot, or "hostbot", deploying a "minibot" which must latch onto and race to the top of a ten-foot pole for the final score. We started brainstorming directly following the broadcast, and our design is almost complete! We will be working afternoons and weekends, and towards the end of our 6-week build season probably late into the night in order to finish our robot by February 22 when it will be shipped to our FIRST competition. Stop by and see the enthusiasm, commotion and sheer creativity that is build season!

The 1st FIRST Community

In honour of the 10th anniversary of FIRST Robotics Canada, Team 1334 hosted a ceremony on December 20, 2010 to recognize the accomplishments of FIRST participants as well as the community service provided by all FIRST teams in the town of Oakville. All FRC, FLL and Jr. FLL teams in Oakville were invited and well over one- hundred people were in attendance for the event, including His Worship Rob Burton Mayor of Oakville, Mr. Kevin Flynn (MPP for Oakville), Mr. Terence Young (MP for Oakville), and Mr. Mark Breadner (Executive Director for FIRST Robotics Canada).

At the event, His Worship Rob Burton presented the FIRST community with a proclamation recognizing and honouring "... the tremendous accomplishments of our many FIRST participants in Oakville for encouraging our youth to become science and technology leaders...". In recognition of the community service provide by FIRST participants in Oakville, Charles Woods (Teacher Mentor of Team 1334) and Cory Sulpizi (Student Captain of Team 1334) unveiled a sign to be displayed announcing Oakville as "The 1st FIRST Community".

All FIRST teams in Oakville then joined together to recognize two private sponsors as Flagship Sponsors in Oakville - Hatch and Ford Motor Company of Canada. We also recognized twenty-one past and present members of the Oakville FIRST community by naming them “FIRST Robotics Heroes” for their outstanding contributions to FIRST, as well as to the broader community.

Team 1334 OTHS Robotics has also received a Letter of Recognition from the Regional Municipality of Halton on behalf of all FIRST participants in Halton and has requested similar recognition from Province of Ontario and the Government of Canada. Team 1334 OTHS Robotics will be issuing a challenge to all FRC teams world-wide to have their communities named "A FIRST Community".

Ontario Science Center: Robots Rule Weekend

On the 21st of November OTHS Red Devils were at the Ontario Science Center to demo our robot to hundreds of children and adults. With us were two other FIRST Robotics teams who we worked with to show the audience what FIRST Robotics is all about. We had children of both genders that were very intrigued by the robots and got to see them up close. We answered numerous questions and we received a lot of interest from everyone that attended. This event turned out to be a wonderful opportunity for us to spread the message of engineering and technology and we hope to do it again in the future.

Oakville Santa Claus Parade

On November 20, team 1334 took part in the annual Oakville Santa Claus Parade. It was the first year that the team participated in the parade and it was a perfect, blue sky, mild temperature day; we couldn't have asked for a better one! Some team members walked alongside the float entertaining the crowd by spelling “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays!” with letters worn on their fronts and backs and handing out candy. But it was the float that stole the show. The theme this year was movies and of course, famous robots from the big screens made a guest appearance on our float including Optimus Prime, Wall-E, and C-3PO. But the real show stopper was a life-size model of R2D2 made by our very own build team. The team worked long and hard to make sure everything was finished and ready on time, and in the end it was worth all the effort to see the looks of pure joy and enchantment on the faces of the children in the audience. It was priceless!

UPDATE: We tied with White Oaks Secondary School for the Best School Float Award!

FLL Practice Tournament a Great Success!

On November 13, team 1334 hosted a FIRST Lego League practice tournament at Oakville Trafalgar High School for 5 FLL teams that will competing in regional FLL tournaments over the next few weeks. Local teams and the Pretty River Predators from Collingwood joined us to perfect their missions and hone their presentation skills with thoughtful and supportive judging from our team members and mentors. Mrs. Peggy Scott joined us as head referee for the matches, and we concluded our day with a presentation from the Professional Engineers for Oakville which introduced the use of robots in biomedical engineering and a demonstration of the 1334 robots. Congratulations to all the FLL teams that participated for your hard work, and good luck at the FLL regionals!

Halloween 4 Hunger

Oakville Trafalgar High School’s Red Devil Robotics team organized a contest with the rest of OT to collect as much food as they could as a donation for the Fareshare food bank. In order to increase donations this year, every classroom at OTHS was encouraged to collect food and the class with the most food won a prize. The contest, Halloween for Hunger, has filled an entire trailer of food from top to bottom including canned foods, dry pasta and other non-perishable items to help the food bank.

Canadian National Exhibition Demo

On August 31st Team 1334 displayed our robot at the FIRST demonstration at the CNE along with nine other FRC teams and two FLL teams from Ontario. This year, we were indoors in the Direct Energy building and had a partial Breakaway field set up to simulate a competition. Many people came to our booth with questions about our robot construction, team events, and funding. Our robot performed superbly in front of thousands of observers all day, and we generated a lot of interest in our team and in FIRST.