Pacific Robotics Club

Pacific Robotics Club

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First Tech Challenge 2019 – National Event

In December last year, three Year 12 students participated in the National First Tech Challenge Event.

The event included more than 30 teams competing from Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and even Tonga. It was professionally run and showcased the amazing technical abilities of senior high school students around the country and our close neighbours.

This was our first involvement at a national event and though we did not place, it was a great learning experience. The team worked well together, modifying code as they went. They capably performed in the competition with a win in one of the five rounds! It was a fabulous effort by all and we hope 2020 is even more successful.

Robotics in 2020

The Robotics Club is up and running again this year. We meet on Thursdays after school in L10 from 3.30pm – 5.00pm. This year, the Club is open to Year 5-12 students and we are looking forward to having a larger representation of girls as well as younger students for the upcoming sumo competition.

The Cooran Sumo competition will be held on 21st March. It features several sumo events across primary, middle and senior school divisions as well as an open sumo event. We have two Middle College teams who will represent Pacific in the Sumo event. We are also looking to build three more Year 5-9 groups for these events. A team consists of four team members.

The major event for the Sunshine Coast this year will be the first Australian based RoboRave, which will be held at the University of the Sunshine Coast from the 22nd – 24th May. It is exciting to have a competition like this in our local area and there is huge interest from many schools in our immediate and extended region.

At the moment, we have three senior teams who are registered to compete in the MegaBall robotic challenge at the event. Two teams will be running Rev robots and the third team will be running a Tetrix robot. These robots are mechanical and fit inside a 40cm cube. The autonomous task this year is already online for teams to begin building and tailoring robots to the task and coding the autonomous program. These robots will also compete in the First Tech Challenge later in the year.

If you are interested in robotics and think you might enjoy a challenge, come along on Thursday after school and have a look!

Esports

Due to senior student interest in online games, this year we are running Rocket League as an Esport at the College. Rocket League competitions are held throughout Australia and the world. Hopefully our teams will be able to represent the College at competitions in the State. We are looking at becoming members of the Australian Esports League when it begins this year.

Rocket League is a soccer style game between two teams of souped up cars where the cars battle on a huge arena. Strategies and team play are important to succeed. Students create local lobby games within our network and compete using joysticks to control the cars.

Currently we have four Middle College and seven Senior College teams. Senior practice games are held in L10 during Monday lunchtimes and middle team practice games are held during Tuesday lunchtimes. There are a few openings for Middle College students if you are interested in coming along. You need a team of three. Practice can also be done at home.

We will also run a competition to design a College logo for Pacific Rocket League later in the term.

Mrs Janine Stone, Robotics Club Coordinator

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