Cybergnomes compete in Toronto Nov. 1

Five students with the Cybergnomes, Clearview’s competitive robotics team, travelled to Zeeland, Michigan for an off-season event this past weekend.

The competition provided an opportunity for the new drive team to practice. Three of the members of the drive team are new to driving.

They are practicing to work as a team, building the robot, maintenance, troubleshooting and competing, all to get them ready for the 2015 season, which begins on Jan. 3.

The students managed to get through to the quarterfinals despite many system problems, said Gary Page, one of the team’s mentors.

“Our shooter was disabled for most of the day so we were unable to shoot into the high goal. Our success was mainly due to our ability to defend against other robots. In one match our driver played such hard defence against team 1918, the team that eventually won the competition, that many members of that team rushed over to our pit right after the match to find out what kind of drive train we had. They didn’t expect anyone to be able to push them around,” said Page.

The team eventually resolved most of the technical issues but it was too late to show off the capabilities of the robot.

The Cybergnomes were the first international team to attend the event.

They will have another chance this Saturday when they will compete at another off-season event at Victoria Park Collegiate in Toronto.

The team will compete in three regional competitions this year. They will be in Oshawa from March 12-14, North Bay from March 26-28 and Calgary from April 2-4.

They hope to make it to the world championships in St. Louis in April.

New students and mentors are always welcome to join the team. We accept students from any school within Simcoe County (and sometimes schools outside of the county).

Sponsors are also needed. It costs about $75,000 to cover the costs of competing, including event registration ($21,000), travel, accommodation, and parts and supplies for building the robot.