Expositor’s MSS correspondent part of the team
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a first-hand account by Alexandra Wilson-Zegil, The Expositor’s Kid in the Hall and member of Team 6865, Manitoulin Metal, which successfully competed recently at the World FIRST Robotics Championships in Houston, Texas.
Monday, April 17
It is one day until departure. After a quick robotics meeting at lunch, my morning sluggishness dissipates. We are going to Houston. My mentor, Mrs. Bauer, gives us an update on how things will work when we travel abroad for the FIRST Robotics World Championship. It is a surreal experience. I remember being at Provincials and being told, “whatever else happens at this competition, it’s icing on the cake. We have exceeded our expectations by far.” This makes complete sense to me. We are competing against the best teams in Ontario, both in build and in business. Little do I know that three days later, I will be holding a trophy, tears streaming down my face with the words, “we qualified for Worlds,” echoing in my ears.
Three months ago, I had a rough draft of a presentation in my hands, and was running through my lines with Addy Gray, Jocelyn Kuntsi, and another mentor, Mrs. Black. Three weeks ago, that presentation won at a district event. Nine days ago, we competed at the provincial level and won once more. Now my team and I are just one day away from embarking on an adventure none of us knew to expect.
Tuesday, April 18
More than a week of anxious waiting has passed, and the day has arrived—the day we leave for the World Championships. As we pull into Toronto after our car ride off the Island, I think about the people who got us here. When we first heard that we qualified for the World Championship, the first question was “how on Earth are we going to get there?” By ‘there,’ I mean the city that is 2,787.38 kilometers away from Manitoulin. Though we are not actually driving, our Manitoulin Island community drives us those many kilometres. It is their support that allows us to compete on the same level as the best teams in the world. I know that my team and I will be forever grateful to Manitoulin’s community for giving us this opportunity of a lifetime. The memories we make on this trip, we will never forget, and we will never forget Manitoulin’s hard work to get us here.
Wednesday, April 19
5:08 am: I can count the amount of times I’ve gotten up at two in the morning on one hand, more specifically one finger. As I write this, I am waiting to board the flight to Houston. Getting through the airport is hectic and comes with all the problems that travelling internationally could hold.
Everyone is talking about rebuilding the robot when we get to Houston. Parts had to be taken off in order for it to fit in the shipping container, so we have to assemble it once we get to the George R. Brown Convention Center. When I looked up the venue, I was shocked to see that it is five city blocks big and could probably fit the entire population of Manitoulin many times over in its 1.2 million usable square footage.
11:45 am: After a short (and crazy) layover in Atlanta, I am now on the plane to Houston, Texas. I can feel the excitement building in the pit of my stomach, working its way through the fatigue I am feeling from my two am wake-up call. It is crazy to think that only six hours ago, I was on Canadian soil in a blizzard, and now I am in an air-conditioned plane just barely over Tennessee. I am still trying to wrap my head around what my team is doing: we are about to represent Manitoulin Secondary School and all of Ontario in a robotics competition far south of the Canadian border.
Our first robotics-related obstacle when we land is load-in. It’s a very short term for a very time-consuming thing. Each team gets a 10’ x 10’ square to work in for the entirety of the competition. We put everything in there in a regular competition: shelves, toolboxes, monitors, tables, you name it. This isn’t a regular competition as everything has to be shipped down. We have two halves of a robot, a shelf, and a smattering of other essentials. Anything we are in need of we are borrowing from our fellow Canadian teams.
It’s 10 pm and we are at the hotel at last! Worlds is a completely different animal than any FIRST event I’ve been to. Being from the island I am not used to being around a lot of people or in a lot of big buildings. Walking into this complex completely throws me out of my comfort zone. When you walk in, you are hit with a wall of people spread across the huge rooms and corridors of the building. You can feel the anticipation in the thick crowd of people building for the first day of matches tomorrow.
On top of this, I am becoming more and more nervous about our Impact presentation, which is scheduled for three o’clock tomorrow. Though we are as practiced as we could be, presenting still makes me nervous.
Thursday, April 20
Despite how hectic it was, this was a monumental day for Manitoulin Metal. Not only did our robot compete on the world stage, we also had a judged interview along with 79 other teams who have made it through district and regional events with the Impact presentation. Our robot played well and held its own against other teams. We were in the Milstein field with 73 other teams and their robots. There were eight other fields, all named after famous scientists. Despite getting bumped around by other robots, our robot, Bumblebee, only needed minor repairs.
Today was also the day of our interview for Impact. We had a small mishap 20 minutes before our presentation when we realized we had left the USB with our impact video at the hotel. Not having this USB at the time of the interview would disqualify us. With a lot of luck we were able to download the video to another USB just in time. You could imagine the stress we were under, but we managed to pull it together. Our interview went really well, I think. The presentation went smoothly with no errors and our answers to questions were received well by the judges. I guess we will see how things go on Saturday!
Friday, April 21
Today was even crazier than yesterday! Before I begin let me paint a picture: imagine over 60,000 people, competing, spectating, or parading around the festivities, food trucks and concerts just outside. Now imagine our little island team squeezing through the crowds, completely shocked at the amount of humanity that can fit into one building with room to spare. Nevertheless, we preserved and figured out our way around the pits (robot build area), the stands and the Innovation Fair upstairs. The fair had many different universities, tech companies, and programs for students to explore. My personal favourite was the NASA booth.
Today was the last day of qualifying matches before alliance selections. Bumblebee lost some and won some and we ended ranked 62nd. My teammate, Xavier Mara had this to say about our bot:
“I think it was a great experience to build a robot and a great experience for our team, even if it (the robot) wasn’t first or second, it got people interested in robotics and that’s what matters.”
Our robot initially started based on the design of a lamp one of our mentors found at Ikea. Its arm was able to reach different levels and pick things up off the ground. The base was made of wires, wheels, weights, aluminum and a motor. It is the culmination of the team’s hard work and I think that is definitely something to be proud of.
Saturday, April 22
Due to the generosity of another team, Inverse Paradox, we woke up early to get on their bus to get to the competition like we had been doing the past few days. There were going to be a couple award recipients announced in the morning as well as alliance selections. Alliance selections are a form of semi-finals. The top eight ranked teams in each field pick three other teams to work together with. At the end the winning alliance from each field compete against the winners from other fields for the FIRST champion title. I was eager to get back to the competition to be back in that energy that you could only experience on an event this scale. Pit interviews ended today, and though I do enjoy talking to judges and networking I was happy to have a day where I could watch the amazing talents displayed in the double-elimination matches.
When I sat down in the stands with my team, a short awards ceremony was about to begin. My ears perked up when I heard that the Impact Award Finalists were being announced. I felt that weird anticipation/nervousness take over my body. It felt like a stomachache you were excited for. I also kept in mind what we were up against: the top 80 teams in the world for this presentation. They started calling team numbers quickly. One team from another field went up and got their finalist banner, then they moved on and the host was beginning to introduce the next team. When the numbers 6865 came out of the host’s mouth and blasted through the speakers throughout the stands my body reacted before my brain. I screamed so loud my throat hurt hours later. When my brain came to I couldn’t stop sobbing and thinking “our tiny island team is a finalist.” The euphoria and pride I felt was only amplified when I thought about how we had made Manitoulin and all of Canada proud as well. We were one of six finalists in only our second year participating in this award. It was unbelievable and should have been impossible by all means. We had overcome all our obstacles and made it.
Once we had gotten our photos taken my mentor, Mrs. Bauer and I sat on the floor behind the stands and cried. We called our families and watched the support pour in from the Island. It was a beautiful moment and one I will always remember. Our amazing community made this opportunity possible for us and it made us all feel great to make them proud.
I was still near tears all day watching the final matches. We unfortunately did not make it through alliance selections but watching the creative and new robot designs at work was a neat experience for someone like me.
I didn’t want the world championships to come to an end, but I suppose it had to. The finale resulted in a lot of confetti with a Canadian team, Beaverworkx, on the winning alliance. I want to give a huge congratulations to every team there as I now have first-hand experience on how much time and effort goes into every aspect of robotics.
After driving back to the hotel in Houston’s 28°C weather, we thanked our mentors profusely. We also had help from Helen Siksek, previously a Manitoulin resident who lives in Texas. She heard we were in Houston and volunteered to help our team. She is affectionately called our Team Grandma. We are all so grateful for her and everyone else who helped us get here.
Sunday, April 23
Sunday was the coldest day in Houston we had had so far, and it was still in the double digits in terms of temperature. Tomorrow we will depart from Houston and arrive in a much colder Toronto. I am happy to go home, but I will miss things about Houston and the memories I’ve made here.
This trip to Houston has provided us with learning experiences, both practical and educational. For example, we went to the Houston Space Center today. This was a once in a lifetime visit for our team. It was incredible. We explored different space sciences, got a tour of the Space Vehicle Mock-Up Facility and saw many things that have gone to space and back, oddly this includes a floral button-up shirt.
Monday, April 24
As I’m sitting in the airport writing this I am filled with deep appreciation for my team. Each one of them are talented and unique people who have contributed themselves to this amazing build season. Their talent did not go unrecognized as we have made a name for ourselves now in FIRST Canada. I am very proud of all the work everyone has done.
Along with this I am so grateful to our mentors who have given us a light to follow. They dedicate much of their time to teaching and cultivating our skills. I know that we will always be indebted to them for the opportunities they’ve given us.
I am also proud to be a Haweater. I am proud to belong to a community that takes care of each other and supports each other’s accomplishments. And I am proud to feel a sense of belonging on this island we live on. I now know that no matter how far away any of us will travel we will always have a place here on Manitoulin Island and on Manitoulin Metal.
