The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday January 17, 2009 - 3 Cash crunch could derail WOSS robotics team By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF T hey've got six weeks to build a complicated robot from scratch and while they may have the know how to do this, finding the money to do it is a whole other ballgame. The students of White Oaks Secondary School (WOSS) are looking for help in raising around $8,000 needed to allow them go all the way in the 2009 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition. The annual competition will see the White Oaks robot perform a number of tasks as it competes against other high school teams from all across North America. "This year they've made a very slippery playing field for us and they've given us mandatory tires that we have to use that will essentially make it like driving on the moon," said Chris Van de Mark, Grade 12. "So it's going to be extremely slippery, very hard to drive and each robot is going to have a trailer attached to it. The object of the game is to get balls in the other team's trailers. The team that has the most points, based on the number of balls in the other team's trailers will win the match." While it might not be as widely recognized a sport as basketball or hockey competitive LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER robotics is something White Oaks excels at, producing a number of successful robots in TEAMWORK: (Above) Members of the White Oaks Secondary School (WOSS) Robotics team (l-r) Antonio Tejada, Kamal Bains, Marc Sinclair and Andrew Muscat, work on a foam prototype of their robot for the 2009 FIRST Robotics Competition. (Below) Last year's WOSS robot. the past few years. Last year, the White Oaks robot made it to pay for their trip to Richmond, Virginia." tions," said Van de Mark. the Regional Championships in Mississauga The school community has been working "We only have six weeks to build the robot where it reached the quarterfinals. to close the funding gap with school staff so we have to be communicating very well on That robot also came in forth at the recently holding a silent auction, which where we are and if we need help and if peoRegional Championships in Chicago. raised around $1,200-$1,500. ple don't do that we run into major probThe year before a White Oaks robot comWatson himself approached numerous lems." peted in Virginia against teams mentored by companies in the Halton Region to gain The competition also allows students to professionals from NASA. sponsorship for his stuwork in their respective fields with some stuHere too, White Oaks "There are entrance fees. It dents while the students dents working on the programming aspect of achieved victory, but was costs around $7,000 to enter themselves came the robot while others work on the design unable to move on to com- the FIRST Robotics competithrough with a bottle and manufacturing aspects. pete in the National drive, which raised Involvement in the robotics competition tion and that's good for one Championship in Atlanta around $1,000. is no idle commitment with students sacrificregional event, the Hershey due to a lack of funding. Despite these efforts, ing time on their evenings and weekends to White Oaks manufactur- Centre in Mississauga for the team still lacks make their robot a reality. ing teacher and competition example, and then if you around $7,000-$8,000 Why are they willing to do all this? mentor Andrew Watson want to compete in a second needed to cover the "It's just competitive nature," said Andrew hopes a similar funding competition's expenses. Smith, Grade 12. event it's another $4,000." issue will not hold back this Watson is holding out "You want to win, so you just do whatever year's team of around 27 stuhope sponsors will come it takes. If we win we get bragging rights, it Andrew Watson, WOSS dents. forward. looks really good on our resumes and there' a "There are entrance fees. manufacturing teacher and "It's for a good cause. scholarship opportunity, but it's mostly for It costs around $7,000 to competition mentor The students design and bragging rights." enter the FIRST Robotics fabricate an autonomous Those interested in sponsoring the White Competition and that's good for one regional robot in six weeks. It's just an incredible Oaks team can e-mail Watson at watsoevent, like the Hershey Centre in Mississauga thing for the students to be involved with. tition also educates students on how to man- nan@hdsb.ca or call him at 905-845-5200 ext for example, and then if we want to compete There's a lot of engineering and stuff related age deadlines and work as a team. 600. in a second event it's another $4,000," said to skilled trades and technology involved," "There's a lot of people working on the White Oaks Secondary School is one of Watson. robot at once and communication and team four Oakville teams competing in the FIRST said Watson. "The robot will cost probably another "It covers all four pathways, workplace, work can be difficult because there are Robotics Competition. $4,000-$5,000 in materials. There's electron- apprenticeship, college technologist pro- groups working on different components of The others are St. Mildred's-Lightbourn ics and different sensors, it's quite an expen- grams and university engineering programs." the robot and if one group falls behind and School, Oakville Trafalgar High School and sive little venture. Then the students have to Van de Mark pointed out that the compe- doesn't tell anyone that can lead to complica- Appleby College. SHUTTERS Shop at Home Service CALIFORNIA & PLANTATION FREE SHUTTERS ETC.