Team Dave Annual FLL Competition

24/11/201429/01/2015 by admin, posted in 2014, FLL, Outreach

Last weekend, Team Dave held our annual FLL competition at St. David CSS. Through the generous sponsorship of Kik and Brick Works Academy, our event was an incredible success.

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Early on the Saturday morning, 11 FIRST Lego League teams from the nearby area made their way to the event. The pits quickly filled up and Lego robots and activity as teams worked on building and programming their robots, practicing their projects, and showing Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition.

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The matches began with many high scoring teams and their robots. The highest score during the event was 250 from Cobra 967. Teams competed against each other, and showed good sportsmanship towards each other. In addition to normal competition activities, Team Dave also proposed a “Selfie” Challenge, in which teams had to go around to various judges, referees, volunteers, and Team Dave’s robot and take a Selfie with them.

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At lunch time, Team Dave ran a FRC robot demo to demonstrate the next level of FIRST to the FLL students and their parents. The kids and parents were very impressed and interested in the robot’s performance and had a lot of fun driving it. We were also fortunate to have Makeshift Robotics 4039 come to our competition as well and drive their robot in the FRC demo as well.

Overall, the tournament was a great success, made possible by the support of multiple volunteers, judges, referees, Kik, Brick Works Academy, and Makeshift Robotics. Thank you to all those who helped and attended the event. Congratulations to all the teams who attended, and good luck to 967 Cobra and 8728 Bricks ‘n’ Bots in the coming competition at the University of Waterloo next year.

2014 Summer Outreach

13/08/201429/01/2015 by Barbara, posted in 2014, Community Event, Outreach

With the summer slowly coming to an end, Team Dave is getting ready for another school year. This summer has been phenomenal for our team. We had the chance to compete at the Indiana Robotics Invitational in July. We have had some amazing outreach experiences this year, in addition to showcasing out robot to our amazing sponsors. This summer we were fortunate to be a part of Discovery Square at the Kitchener City Hall every Tuesday in July as well as hosting our inaugural Lego Robotics Camp at the end of July.

Discovery Square – Every Tuesday in July

For the past couple years, the City of Kitchener has held Discovery Square at Kitchener City hall every Tuesday in July. This event features hands-on activities and demonstrations for children 5 – 12 focusing on science, technology, engineering, art and math and is hosted by popular children’s entertainer, Erick Traplin. We had the amazing opportunity to showcase our knowledge of STEM, and our robot to the community for the second year.

Lego Robotics Camp – July 28 to August 1

Team Dave held its inaugural Lego Robotics Camp during the week of July 28 – August 1, 2014.

38 children between the ages of 5 and 12 were split into 3 groups: Lego Builders for the little ones, lego WeDo for Grade 1-3 and Lego NXT for the older group.

During the camp all 3 groups built robots and some programmed them to perform tasks and missions.

The children were also introduced to some safe science experiments by the 14 leaders, who all call Team Dave from St. David CSS in Waterloo, their home.

During the week, 1 Lego Builder and 2 Lego Wedo members graduated into the next levels, which was a tribute to our successful Lego Robotics Camp.

Beside the serious building and programming, the campers also did some crafts which were usually all related somehow to robotics. For instance, they built robots out of cardboard and made bristlebots out of toothbrushes.

At the end of the week, children were able to showcase their new acquired skills to their parents, family and friends. The highlight for Team Dave was the ability to show their 2014 FRC robot and inspire the future young engineers to join the FIRST programs in our region.

Sponsor Demo

To thank our sponsors for their amazing support in this year, we showcased our robot at their companies, letting their employees take a turn at driving the robot. It was a blast showing the sponsors what their support was able to do for us. We could not be more grateful for the support they have shown during amazing year for Team Dave.

World Championships in St. Louis

02/05/201431/03/2017 by admin, posted in 2014, Competition

On April 22 Team Dave went to the FRC World Championship event at the Edward Jones Dome in St Louis, MIssouri. By the end of qualification matches in the Galileo division on April 24 Team Dave ranked 21st overall out of 100 teams with a record of 7 wins and 3 losses. The team was chosen to alliance with teams 1717, 2122 and 193 ending the season to a tough battle against the first seeded alliance in the quarter finals.

Fun at St. Louis

After a long 13 hour drive to St. Louis from Waterloo, Team Dave made sure to make the most out of their visit! On Tuesday soon after the team arrived at their hotel, they ate dinner at Dave & Busters next door and thoroughly enjoyed the arcade earning a giant stuffed banana as a team. On Wednesday the team learned all about St. Louis and the Gateway to the West through a boat tour on the Mississippi. On Thursday the team ate at St. Louis’ very own BBQ from Pappy’s Smokehouse and on Friday and Saturday the team experienced the delightful food at local St. Louis restaurants.

The girls of the team took a photo shoot at a photobooth at the Dave & Busters

Galileo Division

From Thursday to Saturday the team competed in the Galileo Division and overall had a record of 7-3 and ranked 21st out of 100 teams within the division. In the elimination matches the team was picked by Goleta, California’s team 1717, the D’Penguineers and team 2122, Team Tators from Boise, Idaho, completing the 8th alliance with team 193 MORT Beta from Mount Olive, New Jersey. In the quarter finals, the alliance ended their season to a tough and exciting game against 1756, 148, 558 and 3098 the first seeded alliance. The second match ended with a score of 211 to 212, initially being a tie of 211 to 211, but due to a foul from the D’Penguineer’s alliance the other alliance earned one point as a tiebreaker.

Einstein Final Eliminations

After qualification matches in the Galileo Division, Team Dave enjoyed watching the final elimination rounds on the Einstein field. The winners from each of the four divisions, Curie, Archimedes, Galileo and Newton competed against each other to be this year’s world champions. After intense matches on the field, the Curie Division winners, Team 254 (Cheesy Poofs) and their alliance partners 469, 2848, and 74 won against Newton’s winning alliance(1114, 1678, 1640 and 5136). The crowd exploded in cheers as team 254’s alliance became World Champions and broke the Curie curse.

Thank you!

Team Dave would like to thank all of their sponsors and supporters. If it wasn’t for them, the team would not have been able to experience such a thrilling and wonderful event! This week will surely always be remembered and will remain as an inspiration to continue as a great team and hopefully return to St. Louis for a second time.

Waterloo Regional

23/03/201431/03/2017 by admin, posted in 2014, Competition

Team Dave has qualified for the 2014 FRC World Championships in St. Louis, Missouri in April.

Team Dave had a phenomenal three days at this year’s Waterloo Regional. Ready to make their hometown proud, the team was pumped for Canada’s best, and hardest, FRC regional. The regional was held on Thursday March 20th to 22nd, at the Physical Activities Center, University of Waterloo. Practice day Thursday confirmed that the Waterloo regional showcases the best of FIRST Robotics. Alongside the University, members of Dave planned and hosted the Team Social for the regional, which was held Thursday night. It was an amazing event, and a special celebration for the 10th anniversary of the regional.

Friday and Saturday morning brought very fierce competition in the qualification rounds. Team Dave seeded sixth and captained the 4th alliance, picking teams 1241 and 4992 to complete the alliance. Wining the notoriously difficult 4th alliance vs. 5th alliance quarter final, the team and it’s partners moved on to semi finals, facing the 1st alliance. After two intense matches, Dave winning the first and losing the second, a third match was played. The final score came down to the wire, and the referees had a tough call to make. After long deliberations the final score was 215-236, meaning Team Dave and it’s partners were heading to finals.

The team played an amazing two matches during finals, putting up a fight. Our alliance ended up coming second overall at the regional, and the team won the Creativity award sponsored by Xerox. Because of a wild card put up by the captain of winning alliance Team Dave will now be heading to Championships in St.Louis, Missouri, April 23rd-26th.

The Waterloo regional created a lot of firsts for Team Dave. This was the first time the team has made it to finals, and the first time Dave will be heading to Championships. The team is beyond excited to be playing on FIRST most prestigious fields and representing our hometown of Waterloo while we’re there.

Team Dave needs your help. The path to Championships will be a costly one. Team Dave is looking for sponsors to help us reach our dream of competing in St. Louis. If you are interested in helping Dave reach their dream, please contact us.

Regional finalists and World's wild card qualifiers. — Regional finalists and World’s wild card qualifiers.

Team Dave accepting our finalist award and medals

Setting up the robot for atonomous — Setting up the robot for autonomous

Greater Toronto Regional East

12/03/201431/03/2017 by admin, posted in 2014, Competition

The team continued its amazing streak being completely undefeated for all of qualifications. Team Dave was the the proud recipient of the Excellence in Engineering Award sponsored by Delphi.

This past Thursday to Saturday, March 6th to 8th, Team Dave competed at the Greater Toronto East Regional in Oshawa, held at the combined campus of University of Ontario IT and Durham College. Our first match of Friday resulted in an astounding match score of four hundred and twenty points, a world high score as of the second week of competitions. The team continued its amazing streak being competely undefeated for all of qualifications. Seeding second, Team Dave was picked by team 1114 , and the alliance was completed with the selection of team 4718. Playing great matches in quarter finals, the alliance was hopeful in it’s chances of moving onto finals. The team continued its amazing streak being completely undefeated for all of qualifications. The team played two very competitive games in semifinals but was unable to advance farther in eliminations. Team Dave was the the proud recipient of the Excellence in Engineering Award sponsored by Delphi. This was a proud moment for the members of Dave. With such a great event Team Dave is hopeful, and looking forward to our hometown regional at the University of Waterloo in a week.