Regina robotics team preparing for world championship run

In just its second year of existence, the Thom Collegiate robotics team is heading to the FIRST world robotics championship in Houston.

The acronym FIRST is for an organization called For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.

“It’s a pretty big deal,” Stan Fedyk said Tuesday after the team arrived back from the regional championship in Calgary.

The team placed second in the competition and was chosen to move on to the world championship.

“We were all really excited. I remember the entire team jumped into the crowds and we were screaming, we couldn’t really believe that we did that well,” said Fedyk.

According to Regina Public Schools, the Thom team is the first squad from Saskatchewan to earn a place at the world competition.

Congratulations @ThomTrojans Robotics Team – the 1st ever #sask team to earn a place in the FRC World Championship in Houston on April 17.
The event is only a week away and the team urgently needs your support! Please visit: GoFundMe page is: https://t.co/W3RfgT4kRC pic.twitter.com/SU86ih9v3P

— Regina Public Schools (@RegPublicSchool) April 8, 2019

Every year, there’s a different task set for the robots. This year, it was to put plates on a space shuttle and place balls inside the shuttle as cargo. The robots then compete against others in the task.

Fedyk explained his team’s robot was more defensive.

“At one point, we ended up doubling another team’s points because they could not score on us,” he said.

Stephen Poll is one of the team’s faculty advisers. He said getting to worlds in only the group’s second year feels surreal, almost like winning the lottery.

“We didn’t have (going to the world event) anywhere near the plans. This year, we hoped to do better than we did last year and basically try to make the playoffs, and the fact that we were finalists and actually chosen to go to worlds is unbelievable,” said Poll.

The team is excited about the trip. Dustin Ewasienko said he’s most looking forward to meeting the other teams from all over the world like he and his teammates did at the regional competition.

“There was a team from Turkey … and they brought snacks, and it’s just kind of cool to see everything from other parts of the world,” Ewasienko said.

After the regional competition, the team’s robot was packed up and shipped off to Houston. Now, the team needs to do some fundraising to get there itself.

The team was able to get to regionals thanks to help from the competition and sponsors, but it’s going to have to pay its own way to Houston. So, a GoFundMe page has been started, aiming to get as much money together as possible for fees and travel expenses — and there’s not much time. The world championship starts April 17.

As of Tuesday evening, the campaign had reached only a third of its goal.