Timeline
In The Zone (2017 - 2018)
Our club began in the 2017/18 In the Zone challenge, with our only team being 82050A. We received funding from our school, John Fraser SS, to purchase our first Cortex system, and found space in one of our technology classrooms to hold meetings. This room became our home for years to come!
Almost everyone was new to VEX, which made the year a great learning opportunity. With a total of 6 members, we were able to build a robot during lunch breaks and after school sessions thanks to our amazing teacher supervisors (Ms. McEwen and Mr. Lightbody). After the holidays, our first robot was ready to compete.
With the robot complete, the team was able to attend our first competition, the iDesign Central Toronto Qualifying event. We won 3 out of 7 matches, ranking 30th out of 60 teams - a great learning experience once again! We were unable to attend our other registered event, and with that, our season came to a close.
Many of our members graduated that year, leaving 2 to continue with the team. As such, the team had to expand and rebuild the following year.
Turning Point (2017 - 2018)
Turning Point was our second season in competition, and we brought on several new members at the beginning of this year, many of whom are still on the team today. Once again, we only had one team (82050A), and the season was a great learning opportunity for all members.
This year we kept a similar schedule for our meetings with our teacher supervisors, but were also able to take it home over our winter holidays to work on it while school was off. Our strategist Rishabh and his family were gracious enough to host meetings at their home so we were able to get even more hands on working time with the robot than in the first year.
We competed in two events in February: the Brampton Robotics VRC Qualifying event, and the iDesign Central Toronto VRC Qualifying Event. Unfortunately, we were not able to win any matches at our first event in Brampton but we took the time until the next competition to make improvements, leading to our first ever elimination selection at Central Toronto.
This being the first season for the majority of our team members, it was a great formative experience. We learned a lot about the robotics design process and were eager to continue improving into the next season.
Tower Takeover (2019 - 2020)
A lot of things changed for our club during the Tower Takeover season. Our school was able to fund the purchase of a V5 system, giving our team new technology to build our robots after competing in the last season with Cortex. This was also the inaugural season for our second team, 82050B. As such, both 82050A and 82050B were going to compete. Once again, we were able to run thanks to our amazing teacher supervisors: Ms. McEwen and Mr. Lightbody.
With a better understanding of the design process, our older members were able to teach new members based on their experiences. This allowed us to run teaching sessions so that knowledge could be passed on. Both teams were able to CAD their robots and iteratively improve in order to be successful.
With both teams working throughout the season on their bots, we were able to compete at multiple competitions. Both teams competed at Appleby College event, with 82050A also competing at the St. Catherines regional and Collingwood qualifier. Due to their skills score, 82050A was able to qualify for the Ontario Provincial Championship, with it being the first time the school club had attended.
After further refining of the bot, 82050A competed at the Provincial championship and won 5/7 qualifying matches. As such, they successfully made it to eliminations! After a great run, the team lost a close match in the R-16 round, meaning that the season had come to an end.
This season was an amazing experience for all members, being the most successful year so far. Our members were more excited than ever for the new season.
Change Up (2020 - 2021)
With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, the Change Up season has been very different for us. We were unable to have run both teams due to gathering restrictions, so only 82050A will be competing this year. Instead, our senior members are using the time to teach new members the fundamentals of building, programming, and the design process so that they are better equipped for the next year, while simultaneously building a robot for 82050A. Our team is also very thankful for our new teacher supervisor, Mr. Ghorvei, who has been hosting socially-distanced meetings for us in the tech classrooms of our school where we worked on building a DIY perimeter kit.
Until this season, we had gotten by without one, but due to the online nature of most competitions this year, our team needed a perimeter in order to record and post skills runs. With funding from our school and an enormous amount of help from Mr. Ghorvei, we were able to build a functional perimeter out of wooden planks that satisfy REC requirements. Now, we can compete in online events as well as practice skills in a proper environment.
After a plethora of competitions and hard work, the team were able to win the Design Award in the Provincial championship, qualifying them for the VEX World Championship! Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all teams had to compete online in two, completely new and different formats: Live Remote Skills (LRS) and Live Remote Tournament (LRT). After a lot of finetuning the robot, we were able to get the Innovate Award in our division on an international level.
Once again, this season had been our most successful yet, and has been an amazing experience for all of our team members. We've never been more eager to start yet another season.
Tipping Point (2021 - 2022)
As the COVID-19 pandemic started to ease, we were able to finally run both teams, as well as meet together and work on the robots! We started work in early July, meeting up online and planning out strategies, doing CAD work, and placing the framework for our codebases.
While we continued to work online for the summer, we were only able to start up regular meetings near the start of the school year. Here, both teams started to work on implementing their designs, experimenting, and testing. By the end of December, we had two robots from both teams, both ready to compete.
Unfortunately, due to a new wave of COVID-19 cases and other issues, we were unable to attend any competitions before provincials, leading our season to end. Despite the ending of our season, we were still active, teaching the general members for when they join the teams next year. As the new season approaches, we're excited to get started on new challenges.
