Wednesday, February 12th, 2025

By Judah Page and Cybergnomes

After a summer of festivals and farmers’ markets, the Cybergnomes Robotics team are back in action. With 21 members, from Grades 9 to 12 coming from three high schools across Simcoe County, our team is now larger than ever!

Our 2014 season began in the fall with weekly meetings and bottle, scrap metal and electronics drives. New team members spent time learning about programming in java, learning build techniques, fundraising and raising awareness of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics organization.

Saturday, January 4 marked the beginning of our 45-day build season. For the first time, we hosted our own kickoff in Stayner, inviting our sponsors to share in the excitement of the release of the game for our 2014 competition.
Our team has built a prototype robot to test our ideas and is working on a practice robot. Once completed, everything we have learned through design, trial and experimentation will be used to construct this year’s practice robot.

This year’s game, Aerial Assist, is a throwing game with a twist. Teams of three robots go head-to-head trying to move a two-inch exercise ball from one end of the field to the other to score. Points are awarded to teams that pass the ball effectively from robot to robot and can shoot to score in a goal seven inches off the ground. Bonus points are given to robots that can play catch over a five-inch truss in the middle of the field as they move the ball.

The team has set its sights on three competitions this year: Oshawa (Thursday, March 6 to Saturday, March 8), North Bay (Thursday, March 27 to Saturday, March 29) and Calgary (Thursday, April 3 to Saturday, April 5). In an effort to raise funds for these competitions (entry fees, travel, accommodation and build supplies), we welcome new sponsors and thank our current supporters. We are hosting a Spaghetti Supper and Silent Auction, open to everyone, on Thursday, February 20 at the New Lowell Legion from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.

If you would like to learn more about our progress and our team, please visit www.cybergnomes.ca. Or, you can “like” us on Facebook at Cybergnomes FRC Team 2013, or follow us on Twitter at Cybergnomes 2013 (@cybergnomes).

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