FRC3161 Blog RSS Feed

Visiting King's Christian Collegiate

2012-05-13T13:35:00.001-07:00

The Tronic Titans have recently been talking with two enthusiastic teachers from King's Christian Collegiate. These teachers had seen us at the Professional Engineers of Ontario - OakvilleChapter's National Engineering Month event that we had hosted. We had invited these teachers, as well as their school's principal and some students, to the Greater Toronto West Regional to learn more about FIRST.

This week, the Tronic Titans had a demo at King's Christian Collegiate. Many students were very excited to hear about our program and were intrigued by our design process. Interested faculty members thought our program was very impressive and could be extremelybeneficial to the students involved.

The Tronic Titans hope that through our presentation we have inspired students and teachers at King's Christian Collegiate to start an FRC team of their own next season.

-Krysta

The Greater Toronto West Regional

2012-04-02T14:07:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we had the amazing opportunity to attend the Greater Toronto West Regional. We may have registered late, but we certainly had a lot of fun.

Our bot, Kronos, and our drive team did an excellent job both on and off the field this weekend, and due to everyone’s hard work we seeded 1^st going into alliance selection. We had the awesome opportunity to work with many teams this regional, through either ‘co-opertating’ on the bridge or working with them in the pits. We would especially like to thank our alliance teammates, Team 1114: Simbotics and Team 2634: The Gryphons, for working with us this weekend.

We made it into the elimination rounds as the 1^st alliance, and for the first time our team made it into the finals. Even though we didn’t win, we are extremely proud of our performance this year. We would also like to send a shout out to the winning alliance, Teams 2056, 4001, and 2200. You guys played an excellent match and it was an honour to compete against you this weekend.

At this regional we also received the Judges Award for Continuous Improvement. We had an exciting weekend full of many firsts. Thank you to all who came out in support of us and FRC!

-Krysta

Waterloo Regional

2012-03-25T19:19:00.001-07:00

We just finished competing at this year’s Waterloo Regional. We had an amazing time and made many new friends. By the end of Friday night, we had seeded 1^st out of 30 teams, just barely ahead of the amazing 1114.

During Friday’s awards ceremony, our lead mentor, Mr. Roger Balech, received the coveted Woodie Flowers award. This award is for being a mentor that emphasizes and embodies FIRST’s values as well as spreading the word of FIRST in his or her community.

By the end of qualification matches, we had seeded 3^rd out of 30. This lead to an alliance with teams 3683 (Team Dave) and 4039 (Make Shift Robotics), unfortunately we lost out in the quarter finals and did not move on. The entire team has done such an excellent job this year, both on the field and behind the scenes. We’ll be looking forward to many new outreach events this year as well as partnerships with many new teams.

-Krysta

Girl Guides

2012-02-16T12:40:00.000-08:00

As part of our commitment to inspire young women about STEM we visited a Girl Guides group. We spoke to them about FIRST, our team and how they can get involved with FLL. The girls were very responsive to our presentation and we hope to see them in the future as members of the FIRST organization.

Alison and Julia

Build Week 1

2012-01-17T19:06:00.000-08:00

Our first week of build season was very successful. After our brainstorming and prototyping all week, we have made our final decisions on the design of our 2012 robot.

Our build sub-teams have been working very hard to produce prototypes, reusing parts from our old robots as well as 2x4’s. We also constructed a driving kit-bot, while updating all necessary software. Our awards sub-team has made a lot of progress for our awards submissions, completing their brainstorming and beginning the first draft of our Chairman’s essay.

We are very grateful for our dedicated mentors who have been a great help to us, staying for our daily meetings and aiding in the design of the robot.

We hope that the rate of progress seen this week will continue throughout the rest of build season!

Julia and Alison

Kickoff

2012-01-17T19:04:00.000-08:00

St. Mildred's Women Advancing Technology FIRST team 771 graciously invited our team to join them for kickoff at their school. Our teams watched the broadcast together and then separated to begin brainstorming, strategizing and drafting potential designs. As a team we also read through the manual and broke into focus groups to examine the pros and cons of possible strategies.

This was a great start to build season and we look forward to putting our designs into action!

Julia and Alison

The Second Annual Halton Regional FLL Tournament

2011-12-06T16:25:00.000-08:00

The Tronic Titans had a great time at the second annual Halton Regional FLL Tournament. The tournament was a great success despite when the fire alarm unexpectedly went off. Throughout this time the children’s spirits stayed high seen through their dancing, cheering and conga lines regardless of the cold weather. Fantastic performances were seen from all teams that attended but after all was said and done the Halton Champions were:

Champions' 1^st place: 5413 The Safety Shrinkers

Champions' 2^nd place: 5412 The Grill Masters

Champions' 3^rd place: 564 MunchBotz

Champions' 4^th place: 8831 Legomaniacs

Champions' 5^th place: 14253 Milbank Machines

A special thank you goes out to all judges and volunteers who made this tournament the great experience that it was. Best wishes to all teams moving on to the provincials on January 14, 2012. Watch for mention of the tournament in the Oakville Beaver.

Alison

Fall Events

2011-11-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

The Tronic Titans have been very busy over the past few months volunteering within our school community.

On Thursday September 16th we gave a presentation at our school’s curriculum night where we were given the chance to introduce parents and students to our robot and to FIRST. We also held a robotics demonstration on Parent Teacher Interview Night, where parents come to the school to discuss their child’s progress with their teachers. At our school’s Grade 8 Night, we exposed future students (and their parents) to the opportunity they will have to join something fun in STEM through our demonstration with our previous year’s robots.

Our team helped raise money for the DR HOPE initiative at our school by attending and supporting the organization at their annual Pasta Dinner fundraiser. The DR HOPE initiative raises money to send students from our school to the Dominican Republic to build houses for those in need. Within our school, there is a new club called Free the Children, which raises money to build a school in Haiti. Our team helped raise awareness for their cause through supporting and promoting their initiatives including ‘Silent Day’ at our school.

On October 22nd the Tronic Titans had our third annual Ford Test Drive. At this event Ford donates $20 to our team for every person who test drives one of their cars that they brought to our school for the day. This day was very successful with lots of money raised thanks to Ford and our supportive community.

The Tronic Titans had a great time at our second annual Halton Regional FLL Tournament yesterday. A blog post about that event will follow.

Alison

Grade 9 Orientation

2011-09-11T16:26:00.000-07:00

On August 31^st, the Tronic Titans made a presentation introducing the new grade 9 students at our school to FIRST. We hope to have sparked some interest among the new students by telling them about our team and the great experiences that we have had as Tronic Titans. We look forward to seeing many new faces at our first official meeting of the school year tomorrow, Monday September 12^th.

Alison

Midnight Madness

2011-09-11T16:24:00.000-07:00

On July 15th, the Tronic Titans, along with The Red Devils (FRC Team 1334) and The Sentinels (FLL team 3663) attended Midnight Madness.

Midnight Madness is an event that takes place annually in downtown Oakville, where over 50,000 people walk along the streets (closed to traffic) which are filled with live entertainment, great sales at many stores, and demonstrations from various clubs and organizations.

The Tronic Titans brought our robot, Eos to show our community what we do, and to talk to them about FIRST, hoping to get others interested in science and technology.

Alison

“Let’s Giver!”

2011-09-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

On July 7^th, the Tronic Titans and the Red Devils (Team 1334) were asked to appear on a new children’s television show called “Giver”. Giver focuses on groups of children ages 6-9 working with their communities to revitalize their neighbourhood park centering on a theme of their choice. The Tronic Titans brought this year’s robot, Eos with us to spread the word of FIRST to children building a futuristic playground. Watch for the Tronic Titans on TVO when Giver airs!

Alison

Feeder School Presentations

2011-06-18T12:30:00.000-07:00

Over the past two weeks, the Tronic Titans have made presentations at two elementary schools in our area; Our Lady of Peace and St. Michaels. During these presentations, we introduced the students and teachers to FIRST, and the programs that they can become involved with.

We introduced the schools to FLL, informing the students and teachers about what was done in past years, and how the program benefits the work ethic of younger students. We hope that they will start teams of their own, which we can mentor.

We also introduced the schools to FRC, in hopes that students in the older grades and graduating students this year will want to go to a high school in our area that has an FRC team. We hope that the students and teachers at OLP and St. Michaels learned a lot about FIRST through our presentations and want to get involved with the organization.

Alison

The Tronic Titans Attend Titanfest

2011-06-12T19:46:00.000-07:00

On June 2, the Tronic Titans went to our schools carnival event for the community called "Titanfest". This event is a community barbecue, complete with games, raffles, sumo suits and bouncy castles. Our team sold cupcakes and raffled off a large cake that was decorated to look like a massive cupcake. We also took this great opportunity to talk to members of our community about FIRST, and the Tronic Titans. We brought out our robot, Eos, to show others what we have done and get them interested. As this is also a school event, we spoke with many fellow students about the team and hopefully got them interested in what we do.

Alison

The First Annual FIRST Social

2011-06-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

On June 1, the Tronic Titans hosted the First Annual FIRST Social at our school. We invited FRC and FLL teams in our area to come together and share what they had accomplished this year. This night also paid tribute to team 3663, The Sentinels, who won first place at the World Festival, as well as Dean's List Finalist Paul Fossenier from our team, and Dean's List Award Winner Nicholas Bandiera from the Red Devils. This night was a lot of fun, filled with presentations, robot test driving, karaoke and most importantly, time for people of different ages and from different teams to talk and learn new things from each other. The Tronic Titans plan for this event to grow and continue for years to come.

Alison

The Tronic Titans Battle Cancer

2011-06-06T03:49:00.000-07:00

On Friday, May 27, the Tronic Titans participated in our schools fundraiser called “Titans Battle Cancer” for the second year in a row. This fundraiser is an initiative for our school to raise money for Camp Quality. Camp Quality is a non-profit, volunteer organization that, not only provides children with week-long camping experience, but also provides year-round support for children with cancer (receiving treatment or in remission) and their families. Each team must raise at least $1000, with all proceeds going to Camp Quality. The Tronic Titans had a day filled with fun, while benefitting a great cause. Activities during the day included a hypnotist, musical entertainment, a cosmo class fundraiser, and students walking and running around the track. This day was very successful in regards to proceeds for Camp Quality. The Tronic Titans were proud to be participating in an event that raises money in order to make a significant impact on the lives of others.

Alison

Spreading the Word of FIRST

2011-06-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, May 31, the Tronic Titans visited a neighboring high school within our board named Bishop Reding. Our team made a presentation to the computer engineering classes which introduced the students to FIRST and its ideals, as well as giving them a basic understanding of the competition. We hope that after our presentation, students and teachers at Bishop Reding consider getting themselves involved in FIRST, and partaking in a life changing high school experience.

On June 8th we will visit Our Lady of Peace, and on June 13th we will visit St. Michael’s, which are both feeder elementary schools to our high school. We will be making a presentation that introduces the students to FLL in hopes that they will have teams of their own which we can mentor. We will also be introducing them to our team, in hopes that when they graduate, they will attend our high school and become a member of the Tronic Titans.

We hope that through our efforts, more teams, both FRC and FLL, will be formed in our area, allowing other students to have this amazing experience which we have been fortunate enough to have received.

Alison

The CAGIS Second Annual Open House and Science Fair

2011-04-21T14:52:00.001-07:00

This past Sunday, the Tronic Titans attended the CAGIS (Canadian Association for Girls In Science) second annual open house and science fair. This event was hosted for girls ages 7 to 16, hoping to get them interested in science and technology from a young age. Here is an article written on the event: http://www.insidehalton.com/community/community/article/996617

We brought this years robot, Eos, with us to do a demonstration for the girls. The day was a lot of fun, filled with questions and excitement. We hope that after seeing our robot in action, the girls will want to get involved with FIRST, if they are not already.

We are very thankful to the CAGIS Oakville Chapter for inviting us to participate at this event. Hopefully we found ourselves some future members.

Alison

3161 at the Greater Toronto Regional

2011-04-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday marked the conclusion of the 2011 Greater Toronto Regional. I am proud to announce that the Tronic Titans walked away with our second Team Spirit award this year.

The team was seeded 14th going into alliance selections and became the 8th alliance captain, selecting teams 3710 and 2634. Although we were eliminated before semifinals, Eos was seen at her best, with working autonomous and a competitive minibot. Not to mention, hanging tubes like there's no tomorrow.

We would like to thank our sponsors for giving us the opportunity to have this experience. As well as all of our supporters and parents, who give us their constant encouragement. Most importantly, we would like to thank our mentors and teachers, who sacrifice their time in order to spend it with us, sharing their knowledge and teaching us new things everyday. We would also like to give a special thanks to teams 1305 (Ice Cubed) and 1334 (Red Devils), for all of the help that they gave our Chairman's presenters.

Although this marks the end of the 2011 season, the Tronic Titans like to think that this marks the beginning of a new season. A new season for which people had better buckle up, because the Tronic Titans are coming.

Alison.

3161 Waterloo Awards

2011-03-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

I am extremely proud to announce that we have won the Team Spirit Award at Waterloo! A big pat on the back to all of our team members, but also importantly to all of our parents, sponsors, volunteers, and mentors who have helped our team become who we are today.
Thank you to the parents who brought hot lunches and dinners throughout build season, and for your continuous support of FIRST.
Thank you to our sponsors who have given us the continuous support needed to keep a team running successfully. We hope that we can develop an even stronger relationship in the coming years, and expand our partnership with companies.
Thank you to the volunteers who selflessly give up their time to help our team reach greater heights.
And, a very big thank you to our mentors, who tirelessly put up with our persistent questions, lame jokes, silly mistakes, and constant presence. We wouldn't be where we are without you!

But out team didn't just stop at the Team Spirit Award! Tronic Titans leader Paul Fossenier was awarded the Waterloo Regional Dean's List Award today. Paul is one of those people who makes our team proud to be who we are. He's just one of those guys that can get everyone inspired about anything, always encouraging and with a positive attitude. They couldn't have picked a more deserving candidate. Thank you once again for everything you've done for this team both this year and last, you are an inspiration to the whole team! You better be relaxing now Paul! :P

Next week, we'll be competing at the Greater Toronto Regional West. We're looking forwarded to seeing our new friends, familiar faces, and inspiring robots. Hopefully we can walk away with an award or two as well!

Buckle up 3161, we have only just begun!

5 Days till GTR

Melissa

Gracious Professionalism

2011-03-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

The kindness present at FIRST competitions always astounds me. 1305 won the Regional Chairman's Award and 1334 won the Engineering Inspiration Award at Waterloo today, qualifying both teams for the Championships at St. Louis. I couldn't have agreed more with the judges' pick.

Throughout both today and yesterday, both teams have been working with Julia, Alexander, and I (this year's Chairman's presenters), showing us what they did, and giving us tips to be even better. It was obvious the amount of hard work and dedication they had put into their teams, and how passionate they were about FIRST. Their attitudes and helpfulness inspired us to push ourselves even more and achieve greater things. We are thankful to all teams for their kindness in the heat of competition.

All the teams present at Waterloo were extremely friendly and helpful, and it was clearly evident that students on our team were inspired and worked harder. I'm impressed by how many of our team members rose to the occasion going above and beyond what was expected of them, surpassing what I thought they were capable of.

It is this kind of gracious professionalism that teams like 1305 and 1334 have shown that we strive to emulate and bring to everything we do. This is one of the many things that is the reason I got involved with FIRST, and one of the reasons that I believe I won't be forgetting FIRST anytime soon.

Melissa

Friday

2011-03-25T21:12:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, Melissa here

Although today didn't go as well as we had hope competition-wise, we still have our fingers crossed for tomorrow... we haven't lost hope yet!

There were technical problems with our robot that put it out of commision for a few matches. Some of our drive shafts bent, due to the strain the drive train was put under from all the pressure. We are hoping that these issues will be resolved very soon. We are still looking to deploy our minibot for the first time, and to get our autonomous mode fully functional.

However, today huge leaps were made for the Awards side of the team. Another Chairman's Presenter and myself went around and talked to many of the other teams, finding out tips from older teams, and inspiration for next year's community outreach events. We are especially grateful to teams 1334 and 1305 who gave us a lot of guidance and wish them the best of luck tomorrow and in future competitions. You guys are an inspiration!

I'm exhausted and about to fall asleep, but I absolutely cannot wait until tomorrow.

Until then,
Melissa

Waterloo Day 2

2011-03-25T16:52:00.000-07:00

Needless to say the matches today were incredible!!
Everyone did a fantastic job! Congratulations to all today's winners!

Overall, it was great to be in Waterloo today from the opening ceremonies to the awards ceremony.
We won a few matches today and spirits were high from the stands to the pits.
I think it's safe to say we're all anxiously awaiting tomorrow's events.
See you tomorrow,

Chantal

Co-opertition

2011-03-25T12:47:00.000-07:00

The attitudes of the teams present here today are really unique!
Nowhere but in a FIRST competition do you get to see people helping the competition.
A big thank you to 1334 and 1305, we really appreciate all your help!

Chantal

1st Day at Waterloo!

2011-03-24T18:21:00.001-07:00

What an awesome day!

Today we went to Waterloo along with the other competing teams to practice for the Waterloo Regionals that officially start tomorrow. We got to try our hand for the first time on the game field and appreciate the robots of the other teams present as well! All of today's practice matches were incredible! Each team we saw today were doing amazing jobs. Congrats to everyone!

It was especially an experience for all our new members, finally getting to witness FIRST co-opertition on the field, in the pits and in the stands.
The day was very eventful and pretty exhausting, but truth be told, it's succeeded in making us even more pumped for tomorrow!
I'm sure it's only going to get better.
Buckle up,

Chantal

Finger Lakes Regional

2011-03-05T17:12:00.001-08:00

Today, we went to the Finger Lakes Regional to get a feel for what the competition would be like. We saw several kinds of robots, all of which were awesome. We also looked at various strategies and gameplans of differing qualities. We witnessed some great matches, some with surprising results. Congratulations to 2056, 217 and 1518 on their regional championship. A further congratulations is extended to 2056 on their ninth consecutive regional championship.
We are pumped for Waterloo and GTR!

-Luke and Paul