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Awards and a Provincials Berth for Roboteers
Two teams from Shawnigan’s robotics program have qualified for the provincial championships this March with a chance to earn berths at the 2025 world championships in May.
The teams earned their provincials berths in different fashions last weekend at an event hosted by Claremont Secondary School in Victoria. The team of Tony Z., Justin T., Bella Z. and Aaron N. qualified by winning the skills championship, while the team of Kaho H., Zoe C., Eric H., John P. and Christian W. qualified by making the tournament final, although they ultimately lost and finished as runners-up.
In the skills championship, robots work alone for two separate two-minute slots: the first is autonomous and the second is driver-controlled. The team of Tony, Justin, Bella and Aaron had the highest combined score over their two slots. That team also won the “Amaze” award presented by the judges for their innovative design and engineering process. The team of Kaho, Zoe, Eric, John and Christian also had an impressive showing in skills, placing third overall.
The tournament saw teams battle in this year’s VEX Robotics game: High Stakes, which challenges teams to build a robot that can collect large plastic rings and stack them on a pole, then climb a central tower. After going through a round robin, the teams are ranked, then have to pair up for the playoffs. Kaho, Zoe, Eric, John and Christian paired up with a team from Brentwood College School for their push to the tournament final.
Confident in their overall design, Kaho, Zoe, Eric, John and Christian’s team is only making a few tweaks to their robot between now and the provincial championships in Comox in March. Teams can qualify for worlds by winning the tournament, or by winning the excellence or design awards. Zoe says the team is confident in its design – “We won’t change anything big now" – and Kaho adds that the goal is to win the tournament.
“Our first goal is the tournament championship, but we are aiming for excellence as well,” Kaho explained.
The other team has a different strategy heading into provincials, and is reconstructing their robot.
“We want to build a robot with a better design,” Bella said. “We want a build that can get us to the top.”
Shawnigan has qualified a team for Worlds in three of the last five years. In one of those years, the tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the School has sent teams to the event in Dallas, Texas in each of the last two years.
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Shawnigan Lake School is an independent co-educational boarding school for ages 13 –18 on Canada’s beautiful West Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.
