The dedication, passion, inclusion, and teamwork of the Huntsville High School Hoya Robotics team were on display at a special dinner held at the high school on March 9.
On that evening, the team gathered to meet their sponsors, connect with the community, and show their supporters exactly why they do what they do.
The event consisted of a silent auction, a dinner provided by the students and parent volunteers, various speeches, and a demonstration of this season’s robot “Stinger” and the tasks it will perform at the 2023 FIRST Provincial Championships, taking place in North Bay on Easter weekend.
The HHS Hoya Robotics team (team 4152) was founded by HHS teacher Ian McTavish in 2012 and is currently led by him and HHS teacher Kirsten Otis. From humble beginnings with only 12 members, the team has grown exponentially to 60 members, with 25 core members.
“[Before founding team 4152] I’d been involved in robotics at the board level for a couple of years. The North Bay team came down and showed off their robot and I was intrigued,” McTavish said. “That first season was a huge learning curve. We knew absolutely nothing. We set this goal that each year, we would learn a little bit more. I’m watching the impact on the students and my own children, and it’s so valuable.”
Team 4152 is ranked 18th out of 198 teams in all of Ontario. The team’s award roster is impressive. They have won 15 awards over the past five years, notably first place at the 2022 FIRST Ontario Championship and the creativity award at the ONT District Georgian competition that took place March 3 to 5. In the team’s 11-year history, they have won an award at every event in which they have participated.
“It blows my mind how far we’ve been able to come from those first days,” McTavish said.
Team 4152 has also formed the Trillium Alliance with Bracebridge, Gravenhurst, and Fenelon Falls and together, they participate in activities, practice matches, and outreach in the community.
Among the attendees were the team captain Wilson Trenholm, the team driver Will Tempest, and the main programmer Will Zammit, who earned a spot as a finalist for the Dean’s List at the recent Georgian competition.
Trenholm has been the team captain for three years and says that the main purpose of his role is “to make sure everyone has a job, teach as much as I can, and steer everyone in the direction of learning.”
2023 marks Tempest’s fourth year on the team and he is eager to compete this season with Stinger the robot. Tempest stated the team first started working on Stinger during the first weekend of January and the robot was completed within six weeks. The Georgian ONT District was Stinger’s first competition and Trenholm said that now the team is starting to make improvements.
The team builds a different robot for every season, each programmed to perform a particular task. Last year, the team’s Ontario Provincial award-winning robot, “Terry the Pterodactyl” was programmed to climb and shoot tennis balls, and this year, Stinger’s task is to pick up pylons and inflatable balls and place them on a post or surface. At competitions, the team scores points for each time the robot is able to perform these tasks.
“It’s a totally different type of challenge this year, and that’s part of the fun of it. You have to start from scratch and go, ‘how would this work?’” said McTavish.
McTavish and the team garner interest in robotics among youth by performing demonstrations at local schools and various community events such as the Huntsville Fall Fair. They also do lego robotics at elementary schools and a program called TechnoGirls, where female students learn coding and other hands-on technological activities.
It is these extraordinary initiatives that are responsible for the presence of many of the members on the team. Both Trenholm and Tempest witnessed McTavish and team 4152’s demonstrations at their elementary schools, which was the catalyst for their passion for robotics and their dedicated involvement on the team.
“That’s what ultimately made me decide that I wanted to get involved in robotics,” said Trenholm. “I’ve always had an interest in Aerospace Engineering and this has got me into the engineering side of things. It is one of the only schools in our area that has a technology side to it.”
With the hard work and dedication of McTavish, and the team members and mentors, HHS has become known for its exceptional robotics program, from courses on designing robots and computer programming to offering workshops for teams across Ontario.
The team’s main programmer Will Zammit supports these sentiments and speaks from personal experience when he says that HHS’s robotics program is one of the best there is, not only for technological opportunity and advancement but for character growth and development.
“I actually came to HHS specifically for the robotics team,” Zammit said. “I’ve always wanted to do this as a child and I’m finally able to do this at Huntsville High with team 4152. When I look at those on the team, I can see them develop not only their skills but other skills like social skills and leadership skills.”
During the speech segment of the evening, McTavish and parent volunteer Alison Dumont delivered heartfelt speeches expressing their devotion to the team and their admiration for its values.
“This past weekend, at my first robotics competition, the things I witnessed solidified my commitment to this team,” Dumont said. “I saw the team’s values in play in the way the teams jumped at the chance to help each other out when one was in crisis. It’s through this type of collaboration that young brilliant minds will be able to reach new heights together, to solve real-world problems. I witnessed a culture of inclusiveness, in the way that the different grades, genders, sizes, shapes, colours, interests all accepted and were just comfortable with one another… I care immensely about what their involvement with these robots brings to their precious lives as individuals, as community members of this high school and of this town, and best of all, what it brings to their lives as future world changers.”
McTavish expressed the same feelings towards the team and made it very clear how proud he was of their accomplishments. He also asserted how crucial the mentors of the team are to its success. McTavish awarded team mentor Sam Topps with the Excellence in Mentorship Award, which will furthermore be called the Topps Family Excellence in Mentorship Award, for his immense show of dedication and support for the team.
McTavish concluded the speech by expressing his gratitude to the team’s various sponsors and the gracious support from members of the Muskoka community.
“The community support and the sponsors make this a reality for us. Without that, we wouldn’t have had these amazing opportunities,” McTavish said.
The Hoya Robotics team 4152 sponsors include Kimberly Clark Huntsville, Seals for Life Industries, Rotary Club of Huntsville, Trillium Lakelands District School Board, Trinity United Church, Home Hardware Building Centre, Panolam, ProActive Rehab, Blackburn Industries, Huntsville Bowl, Gangnam Korea, as well as parents, community members. and various other local businesses.
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Doug Austin says
Well Done … Bravo !
What else can I say.
Mary Spring says
Congratulations to all involved. This is a good news story. Well done.
Retired Proud Principal Sharon Stahls says
Congratulations to everyone involved, team members, teachers, family, sponsors etc. An accomplishment like this takes a whole village to be involved. Thank you to Ian for spear heading the Robotics program and getting it off the ground at HHS. It is so rewarding to read about the growth and accomplishments that have happened over the years. Well Done!👍
Denise Jordan says
Thé HHS Robotics team is thriving due to the passion, dedication and perseverance of Ian McTavish. He had no idea of the scope of the program when he bravely agreed to start a team. He has persevered from year to year providing guidance and caring to every student that signed on. It involved many many hours of work over and above his regular teaching time. It is teachers like Ian who provide opportunities for authentic enrichment and engagement in high school. Hats off to you Ian. You have earned every accolade that you’ve received – and more!
Brenda Begg says
Lest we forget that Cher Webster founded Saint Mary elementary robotic team and helped mentor Huntsville High Robotics Team. Rest in Peace, dearest Cheri. You are missed. You are loved. Your dedication is admirable.