Robotics team grateful for community support

Near North Student Robotics Initiative
News Release

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For the fifth year in the row the Near North District School Board’s robotics team, the Near North Student Robotics Initiative (NNSRI), has competed at the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Championship event in Atlanta Georgia in April. The team qualified three times by competing with two robots, L-Bot and TTOMM. TTOMM, NNSRI’s larger machine, made a strong showing with four wins and 3 losses in regular seeding matches in the Archimedes division, placing NNSRI in 29th position in a field of 85 bots. Even with the losses TTOMM performed as the strongest machine in each random assigned alliance of three robots. Little L-Bot placed 37th in a field of 50 bots, quite a feat since the team used this small machine to introduce new members to the world of robotics technology by using new drivers.

FIRST is not just about competing with robots; it is an international competition celebrating excellence in science, technology and gracious professionalism. In fact, the most prestigious FIRST award honours the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST. The award helps keep the central focus of the FIRST Robotics Competition on the goal of inspiring greater levels of respect and honour for science and technology.

The Championship event was keynoted by former American President George Bush, who described FIRST as “the WWF for smart people”. Each year at the Championships NNSRI team has met with the Canadian consul and this year the team provided the consul with a tour of their pit. The team also enjoyed a number of other cultural activities.

NNSRI is extremely proud that the entire Championship event was won by a Canadian team, Simbotics, Team 1114, from a St. Catharine’s public high school, certainly proof that Canadians do perform extremely well on the world stage.

Watch for NNSRI in the coming months. NNSRI will be presenting at Explore the Trades to over a thousand youth in Bracebridge. They will also continue with other community outreach activities such as Relay for Life, Summer in the Park, Million Dollar Hole in One and Canada Day celebrations. In addition, NNSRI is scheduled to present their interactive multimedia presentation, “Ten Keys to Leadership Through Gracious Professionalism”, to a local church group.

NNSRI is most grateful to community sponsors and supporters who have given so much to the team over the past eight years, making their FIRST opportunity possible.

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