In this world where encouraging science and technology plays pivotal roles in ensuring the development of future leaders, the Smartphone is a critical tool in helping these individuals work efficiently and in parallel with each other to create new ideas to help society. Team 1114, General Motors of Canada, St. Catharines Powertrain, Governor Simcoe Secondary School “Simbotics,” functions much like a Smartphone, able to spread the values of FIRST and achieve excellence both on and off the field, while working in concert with and assisting in the development of other teams, schools, students and the surrounding community at large.
Simbotics is currently in its 9th year of existence. In the past 8 years, Team 1114 has won 15 Regional Events, along with the FRC World Championship in 2008. Using the knowledge gained from our experiences, Team 1114 has started 7 FRC rookie teams, all of whom have been successful in competitions, winning a rookie award. This year Simbotics has founded 3 additional FRC rookie teams, providing them with a strong foundation to be successful in FIRST by having the knowledge to better use resources, and access to an experienced mentor group. However, Simbotics does not rest at this initial step, we work with these teams to provide input on a sustainable foundation that they need to have in order to ultimately be successful. To help all teams become more like a Smartphone, we have designed a Collaboration model that demonstrates ways to use resources more effectively by combining ideas and strategies about each season’s game with other teams. This Collaboration model has been used by a rapidly increasing number of teams, starting with twenty teams approaching us about the program, to countless amounts of teams now. While our team as a whole effectively helps other teams grow, Simbotics members also individually assist in any fashion that they can. With 8 regional Volunteer of the Year Award winners, our members are clearly willing to go the extra mile to support FIRST. At the same time, our mentors are willing to do the same for our students and sponsors, as demonstrated by the 3 Regional Woodie Flowers Award winners on Simbotics. These awards demonstrate the level of dedication and passion that our mentors have put into our team, and the respect our students have for them.
Team 1114’s strong student-mentor relationships has helped our team grow into a superior family. With our effective “Big Simbot, Little Simbot” program, students are able to communicate with their paired mentor about topics that extend from robotics, to school, to personal concerns. Team 1114 is fortunate to have extremely supportive mentors. Not only do they help the students learn and understand the concepts of engineering, but they go above and beyond to help the students understand the opportunities that the FIRST robotics program can and will provide for them. This year, our mentors took the senior students on our team to a university fair held in Toronto to help develop their interests in different post-secondary education programs. Under the guidance of our mentors, the students were able to examine and compare different programs, as well as gather information to make their own informed decisions about their post-secondary options. A key to further developing the student-mentor bond is communication. Simbotics has developed methods for communication through a series of Google groups where the students, parents, and mentors can correspond with each other. As well the students and mentors share ideas and designs through an on-line repository for computer-assisted-drawings, allowing superior design related communication.
With Simbotics being well known through our community, Governor Simcoe has had a 37% increase in student enrolment since 2005. With an increased amount of students and a growing interest in robotics, our team has been able to hold in-school activities for students to attend, allowing our team to gather significant fundraising. Our school, which was previously known for athletics, has now become a major attraction for students interested in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics because of the influence of Simbotics. With the growing interest in these fields, our school offers an opportunity for students to participate in the Specialist High Skills Major challenge. FIRST has opened many doors for the students participating on Simbotics. Four of our students have received scholarships through FIRST such as the University of Waterloo FIRST Mechatronics Engineering Scholarship.
Simbotics would not be where we are today without the help from our sponsors. With humble beginnings in 2003 of one sponsor, we have sustainably grown to over sixty current sponsors. One of our major sponsors, the District School Board of Niagara, has graciously allowed us to use one of their facilities for our practice field. Many alumni from FIRST have also benefitted from our title sponsor, General Motors of St. Catharines, Canada. Twelve of them have received internships at the Powertrain Plant in St. Catharines. Mentors on Team 1114 have shown how challenging FRC can be. GM has recognized this and has used this as a way to train new employees to be leaders through taking a lead part on a FIRST team. The mentors that come out of this program show the leadership and design skills necessary to become an asset to their corporation. Team 1114 has emulated this model, taking new mentors in as "junior mentors" in order to train them to work effectively on our team.
Simbotics is dedicated to helping our community in various ways. From showing our robot at hobby shows to giving demonstrations at the Ontario Science Centre, and the CNE, Simbotics is always actively involved in our community. Through these presentations we have been able to effectively spread the message of science and technology to over 40000 people in the past year. Our team has also participated with many charitable efforts including Relay for Life.
Simbotics extends its reach to other teams throughout the year. Our “Textbook for Success” is a series of seminars on subjects such as robot design and running a team, which has been viewed over 7000 times since 2008. These seminars are presented annually at the World Championship, and were developed to help all robotics teams gather the fundamental knowledge and understanding to better prepare their team for future challenges. To continue to support other teams, Simbotics has made our machine shop and practice field, available to all robotics teams. If teams are unable to utilize these facilities, we take the time to help manufacture parts for them.
Team 1114 has effectively influenced many different aspects of robotics, and has encouraged FIRST principles in a variety of unique ways. Our team actively supports our local FLL teams by helping set-up and run the local competition. Students are also involved with mentoring teams, helping members of the FLL teams with engineering principles, as well as coaching them during the event. As well as encouraging science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), in FLL teams, Team 1114 has made it possible for all schools in the Niagara region to have access to a VEX robotics curriculum and classroom kits. These resources have made it possible for Simbotics to encourage robotics programs to youth and to promote STEM through our entire community. As well as working closely with FLL and VEX, Simbotics is strongly involved in the FRC community. Our team members volunteer at events, assisting with various roles such as field setup, refereeing, and robot inspection. Simbotics has hosted the only off- season event in Canada. This event boasted over 20 teams, being a very successful tournament. These efforts have been extremely effective, allowing Simbotics to extend our reach worldwide.
Simbotics has achieved global connections through creating new teams internationally. In the 2009 season, Simbotics was introduced to Gymnasium Spaichingen School in Germany by one of our sponsors. Through various meetings, demonstrations, and classes, they were able to get an in-depth look at how Simbotics runs. To help the German school get started with creating a team, we donated our 2009 practice robot. This year, Team 1114 has once more extended its reach to Mexico, by helping to create a new rookie team there. This team will be competing at the Greater Toronto Regional this season, where Simbotics will be helping them through the competition, providing them with insight, as well as helping with any concerns they may have.
Media is a large part of our team’s accomplishments, having been featured on a variety of formats and networks. Locally, our team is featured in our community in newspapers and radio stations. At the same time, our reach has also extended internationally with our robots being featured on a two-part episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation, which is watched by over 6 million teens worldwide. Simbotics was featured on Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet, as well as on a commercial for the program that is replayed daily. These have all been amazing opportunities to encourage more young people to become interested in science and technology, increasing awareness for FIRST worldwide.
Team 1114 has learned that in order to successfully spread FIRST’s values and achieve excellence you need to be able to work efficiently on parallel roads. Our team has found that the best way to accomplish is to work much like a Smartphone, by being able to complete these tasks efficiently and effectively. By continually spreading the interest of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, having a strong team relationship, as well as starting new teams, Simbotics has proven that or team is able to pursue FIRST’s mission and work their principles into everything that our team does.
