Team 1305 brings home the hardware from western robotics competition

Near North District School Board
News Release

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FIRST Team 1305, the Near North Student Robotics Initiative, has returned from the West with more coveted hardware in hand. The team, also known as Ice Cubed, competed last weekend in Calgary at the first ever Western Canadian FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) Regional along with teams from across Canada, the United States, Mexico and Brazil.

“Being one of the role model teams there was cool,” said grade ten student Mac Willis. “FIRST Canada invited four Ontario teams to show the rookies how it’s done, and we were honored to be chosen.”

FIRST, which stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”, is an international organization designed to get kids from ages 6-18 excited about science and technology. The FRC division, which is for grades 9-12, receives their challenge in January and has six weeks to build a competition ready robot. This year’s challenge is “Ultimate Ascent”, and in usual FIRST style, has two alliances of three robots each, shooting Frisbees into goals for points and climbing a jungle-gym like pyramid for bonus at the end.

“Like all newly established regionals, there were numerous rookie teams. Over half of the 30 teams at the competition were brand new,” says mentor Nancy Dewar-Stenning. “In particular, Herman's Team 4625 made a tremendous impact on everyone at the event and also throughout the whole FIRST community.”


FRC Team 4625, the Trappers, from Fort McMurray, Alberta, is a one-student team. The student, named Herman, came to the competition on the first day with his family, his teacher showing up later that day. Originally his was a four-person team, which is extremely small even for rookie teams, but the other three friends quit part way through the season. When other teams at the competition found out about the one-person team, they checked out his robot, which wasn’t functioning at the beginning. Four teams from Oakville and Michigan jumped in to get his robot moving and playing the game, and 1305 made a banner.


“The experienced teams really jumped in to help,” says Captain Emily Haws. “They helped out all rookie teams, but this one in particular. It was easily the most touching event that weekend in all of FIRST.”
“Herman was even chosen for the 5th alliance,” adds student Lucas Thorne. “We ended up having to compete against his team and he got eliminated, but with any luck he’ll bunk with our team for the World Championships in St. Louis. We really want him to come with us – he’s definitely earned it.”


Along with being semifinalists, FIRST Team 1305 was recognized for their shared safety practices with the UL Industrial Safety Award. Captain Emily Haws was awarded the very prestigious Dean’s List Finalist award for her leadership with FIRST, which puts her within the top 116 of the 45 000 students in the program worldwide. She is the fourth Dean’s List Finalist from North Bay, along with Martin Gagne (2011),

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Stacey Willick (2011) and Alex Wilcox (2012). This season, 1305 was also a quarterfinalist and won the Regional Chairman’s Award in Waterloo. They were also semi-finalists and won the Gracious Professionalism Award in Toronto. They have qualified to compete at the FIRST World Championships in St. Louis at the end of the month.

The Near North Student Robotics Initiative wishes to thank over eighty sponsors for their continued support throughout the years.

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