Our Mt. Boucherie Bears Robotics team took center stage as more than 1,500 students, teachers, mentors, parents, sponsors and robotics enthusiasts filled Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, B.C. for the FRC Canadian Pacific Regional competition last week. The FIRST(for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition is an international robotics community aimed at inspiring young people to be leaders in STEM. FRC is one of the biggest high school level robotics competition in Canada. 36 teams with more than 200 competitors ages 15 to 18 and their robots took part this past week from Feb28th - March 4th. Teams from as far as Australia, Taiwan, Michigan, California and Hawaii as well as Alberta & B.C. were competing for a spot at the World Championship in Houston, Texas. The students designed, fabricated and programmed their robot over an intense 8 week period to score and achieve ranking points to advance.
Our team of 8 girls and 7 boys overcame some major obstacles to make it through qualifying matches. The team pulled together, had their mettle tested and persevered between qualifying matches to gradually bring back and improve the robotics functionality. After the qualifying matches, the MBSS team were selected for the playoff bracket rounds by the number 3 ranked team from the Taipei American School to form an alliance with Surrey's rookie team from Grandview Heights Secondary. The 3 team alliance then fought their way through the double knockout format to the finals where they were defeated by the #1 & #2 ranked teams from Hawaii and Australia. With the Finalist (2nd place) finish , the team narrowly missed qualifying for the World Championships in Houston, Texas. This is the 3rd year team's best finishing results and a celebration for the team and community.
