Grandview Heights robotics team off to Houston for international competition

Members of the Ursa Major Robotics Drive Team.A group of Grandview Heights Secondary students will be headed to Houston, Texas next month following an invitation to compete in the FIRST Robotics World Championships in April.

The invite comes as a result of an extraordinary debut performance by the school’s Ursa Major Robotics team’ at the Canadian Pacific Regional FIRST Robotics Championships, a performance that saw them come second place and take home the Rookie Inspiration and Highest Seeded Rookie Team awards.

“That was super exciting,” said Grandview robotics teacher and team coach Scott Smith. “We would’ve been happy to have even made top 20 for our first year, but for us to come away with a performance like that, the kids were just over the moon.”
 
 The Ursa Major Robotics bot competes in the robot arena.Like the regional competition, the FIRST Robotics event in Houston will see student-built and student-programmed robots perform specific tasks in a competition setting. Tasks can include shooting balls into goals, placing inner tubes onto racks, hanging on bars and balancing robots on beams. 

With the team in its rookie year, Smith said he was less worried about winning titles and more focused on building the team’s foundation and community for years to come. Instead, the Ursa Major Robotics team hit the ground running and quickly found itself competing with top opponents.

“Right from the start, on the first day, we were rocking it and our robot performed amazingly,” said Smith. “By the end of day one, we were already ranked third, which was mind-blowing for a rookie team and the students were just so excited.”

The team has an even mix of both female and male students in Grades 8-12 and each were assigned to smaller roles, such as being part of the build team, electrical team, design team, and programming team. 

Smith said the team’s turnout of female students was impressive for the technology field.

“Most of these types of classes you might only get a handful of girls, but our team has an even mix and they’re really the ones that have stepped up, built the robot, maintained it, and helped come up with the whole team business plan. They were the leaders of our team.”

One such member is Grade 9 student Sarah Holliday, who became the team’s primary driver.

“Sarah actually joined the team because her friend dragged her to it,” recalled Smith. “Sarah herself wasn’t really interested in robotics, but she decided to stick around and helped design our logo and helped during the lead-up to our event.”The Ursa Major Robotics bot during competition.

Once the robot was ready to drive, explained Smith, each of the students took turns driving the robot and when it came time for Sarah to try, she ended up being the best driver they had.

And it was that skill, along with the dedication and enthusiasm from the rest of the Ursa Major Robotics team, that led to the breakout performance.

“There were teams who have been doing this for 20 years and had not been able to pull off a performance like that,” said Smith. “We had teams from Hawaii, Australia and even Taipei there and here was a little rookie team from Surrey.” 

Now, with the regionals in the rear-view mirror, Smith and the Grandview team have their sights set on the world championships. And despite the odds being against a rookie team winning the world championship, Smith said that following their debut, anything is possible.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” said Smith. “It has been done before, so never say never.”

The First Robotics World Championships takes place April 19-22 in Houston, Texas. For more information on FIRST Robotics, click here.

The Ursa Major Robotics Team is also raising funds for the Team's trip to Houston. To learn more and donate, visit their Go Fund Me campaign here.