Press Releases

CCA Celebrates Two Robotics Teams at World Championship

Canyon Crest Academy Makes FIRST History

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – March 22, 2010— With two rookie robotics teams headed off to the FIRST World Championships Robotics Competition next month, Canyon Crest Academy (CCA) has decided to celebrate. The high school will host a FIRST Robotics Day assembly for students and faculty, local dignitaries, executives of the teams’ corporate sponsors and the media on March 31, 2010 from 11:30 am to noon.

“This is the first time in the history of FIRST Robotics that a high school has managed to send two rookie teams to the World Championships in one year,” says Joel Hartley, Science and Technology Liaison for the CCA Foundation. “This is a special accomplishment and we want to recognize the phenomenal achievement of both teams and the school.”

County Supervisor, Pam Slater-Price will proclaim March 31 as CCA FIRST Robotics Day in San Diego County. Other noted guests include San Diego City Councilwomen, Sherri Lightner, Solana Beach Deputy Mayor, Lesa Heebner and Councilman, MIke Nichols, and Julie Meyer-Wright, the President and CEO of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation and executives from SAIC, ViaSat, NASA and Qualcomm will attend the celebration.

CCA was founded with the goal of becoming the Arts and Technology focused high school in north County. The Arts are thriving under a successful program called “Envision”. But due to funding restrictions the Technology program has been struggling. Now with the two strong teams of the CCA Robotics Club, the Technology program is growing and reaching out to more students in the areas of science, technology, engineering & math (STEM) and more money is being raised to support it.

The “Aluminum Narwhals” is a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team comprised of 60 students that competes at FIRST’s highest level of robot design, programming, fabrication and business development. The team, lead by president Logan Mercer, a junior at CCA, competed in the San Diego Regional Competition, capturing the prestigious Rookie All-Star award and a spot at the National Competition. The Rookie All-Star Award is based upon the performance of its robot, a 3,000 word essay and a video describing the team’s progress, and interviews with 21 judges from California’s top engineering companies over a three day period of the competition.

In November, CCA’s FRC Team also won a prestigious grant from NASA in anticipation of its competition abilities. In addition to NASA, CCA’s Aluminum Narwhals are sponsored by Qualcomm, www.qualcomm.com, SAIC,www.saic.com, ViaSat, www.viasat.com, Nordson Asymtek Corporation, www.nordson.com and the CCA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit all volunteer organization that supports the educational programs at CCA, www.canyoncrestfoundation.org. For information on additional sponsorship opportunities for the CCA FIRST Robotics Competition team, please contact info@team3128.org or visit www.team.org.

CCA’s “Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto” team, organized by junior-year student Kristin May, is a FIRST Tech Challenge team comprised of ten students. The FTC team also designed, programmed, and fabricated their winning robot, which took the first place Winning Alliance trophy at the Los Angeles Regional Competition out of 13 high school teams, and the second place Finalist Trophy at the Las Vegas Regional Competition out of 24 high school teams. In addition, the team was a finalist for the Think Award based on the quality of their Engineering Notebook, and won a special Judges Award Trophy at the San Diego Regional Competition for “an outstanding combination of innovation, outreach, team spirit and competitive success”.

The 2010 FIRST Robotics World Competition, April 15-17, 2010 is expected to include more than 350 of the top scoring high school teams from around the world. More than 25,000 students are expected to attend the event. The participants are eligible to receive $12 million in scholarships from some of the finest science and engineering universities and colleges in the country.

ABOUT CCA

Canyon Crest Academy is a part of the San Dieguito Union High School District. CCA is a “school of choice”, accepting students from throughout the district. Current enrollment is approximately 1800 students in grades 9-12, with the 2008-2009 students earning the highest public school API in San Diego County. Information about CCA may be found at the school website, www.2.sduhsd.net/cc.

ABOUT FIRST

Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester , NH ,FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With the support of many of the world’s most well-known companies, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge for high school and middle school students, the FIRST LEGO® League for children 9-14 years old, and the Junior FIRST LEGO League for 6 to 9 year olds. To learn more about FIRST, go to www.usfirst.org.

CCA ROBOTICS WINS ALL-STAR AWARD AT SAN DIEGO REGIONAL

Team invited to compete at National Championships in Atlanta, Georgia

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA—March 8, 2010— Amid much cheering and applause, Canyon Crest Academy’s FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team, the Aluminum Narwhals, captured the Rookie All-Star Award at the FIRST San Diego Regional Competition Saturday, March 6, 2010 at the San Diego Sports Arena. The All-Star Award is the most prestigious award that a rookie team can win at the Regional competition.

The award celebrates the rookie team exemplifying a young but strong partnership effort among its team members, mentors and sponsors, as well as implementing the mission of FIRST to inspire students to learn more about science and technology. The award includes an invitation to compete at the FIRST National Championships April 15-17, 2010 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA.

CCA faced off against 49 high school robotics teams from around the country and seven other rookie teams in the three day San Diego tournament. CCA’s Robotics team earned its place in the FIRST San Diego competition by designing, building, and programming a sophisticated robot in just six weeks that could play this year’s game, Breakaway, a fast-paced variation of soccer.

CCA was selected as the winner of Rookie All-Star Award based upon the performance of its robot, a 3,000 word essay and a video describing the team’s progress, and interviews with 21 judges from California’s top engineering companies over a two day period of the competition.

Team President Logan Mercer, a junior at CCA, acted as spokesperson for the team in the interviews, and answered questions on the robot’s complex engineering and programming systems, the team’s organizational structure, its financial plan and its marketing program. The team’s video may be viewed on its website, www.team3128.org.

The Team’s robot was remotely operated by a drive team which included junior Michael Wahl and sophomores Garrison Price, James Quintana and Jared Schrok. The Team’s pit at the competition was run by senior Dominic Dufour, sophomore James Dial and freshmen Pia Elbe and Brian Sandler. In addition, freshmen Nic Stone and Nick Van Campen acted as scouts for the team, junior Tyler Carter was the team’s ambassador to the VIP’s at the event, and senior Ben Brust and sophomore Aryan Sanikhatam shared duties as the team’s Aluminum Narwhal mascot.

“Winning this award was an enormous team effort,” said Mercer. “We have a lot of talented students on our team and a great relationship with our mentors and teachers. The All-Star award is very motivating and we feel confident taking our team to Nationals. We are proud to be representing our high school and the city of San Diego.”

Formed in September, 2009, CCA’s FRC Team includes 60 students, two faculty advisors and nine mentors including six professional engineers. The team met three times a week after school and at lunch to develop its programming, design and fabrication skills prior to the season’s kick-off. From January 9 to February 23, the team met seven days a week, after school and on the weekends, building the robot and meeting the other requirements of the competition.

“The Aluminum Narwhals have defined education at CCA in a new and very exciting way!” responded CCA Principal, Brian Kohn, to his team’s success. Kohn and CCA Foundation Liaison, Joel Hartley initiated the robotics team last summer as a means of creating more interest in science, technology, math and engineering at the school. The team’s faculty advisors are computer programming teacher Michael Remington and physics and engineering teacher Stephen Yip. Mentors include Hartley, ProCon, Inc., Jim Dufour, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Ken Farinsky, Scala, Inc., Dave Walborn, ViaSat, Inc., Hauke Bartsch, Linda de Stephano, Rhonda Epstein, Jeff Krusen, and Shan McClure.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a national nonprofit organization that encourages students to discover the rewards and excitement of science, engineering and technology. Working with professional mentors, students are challenged to design, build, and program their robot to compete in a robotics sporting event. Each year is a new engineering challenge as the robot specifications and game rules change.

This year’s game, Breakaway, pitted two alliance teams of three robots each squaring off on a 54’ by 27’ playing field that was divided in three sections by two 13” high bumps with one 18” tall tunnel each. The robots scored points by “kicking” soccer balls into goals. In order to play the whole field, robots had to be able to traverse the bumps or fit through the tunnels. In addition to scoring points by goals, a robot could score bonus points by elevating itself and other robots on one of two towers in the middle of the field at the end of each match.

The 2010 FIRST Robotics Competition season is expected to include 1,800 high school teams from around the world competing in 44 Regional FRC events. The National Championships will be attended by more than 220 of the top scoring teams from the Regional events. More than 25,000 people are expected to attend the event. The participants are eligible to receive $12 million in scholarships from some of the finest science and engineering universities and colleges in the country.

CCA will also send its FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) team, Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto, to the National Championships in Atlanta, after it won first place at the Los Angeles FTC Regional Competition in December. FTC is a junior varsity level of robotics competition and includes 10 CCA students.

In November, CCA’s FRC Team won a prestigious grant from NASA in anticipation of its competition abilities. In addition to NASA, CCA’s Aluminum Narwhals are sponsored by Qualcomm, www.qualcomm.com, SAIC, www.saic.com, ViaSat, www.viasat.com, Nordson Asymtek Corporation, www.nordson.com and the CCA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit all volunteer organization that supports the educational programs at CCA, www.canyoncrestfoundation.org. For information on additional sponsorship opportunities for the CCA FIRSTRobotics Competition team, please contact info@team3128.org or visit www.team.org.

CAPTURE: CCA Robotics Team

ABOUT FIRST

Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester , NH , FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With the support of many of the world’s most well-known companies, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge for high school and middle school students, the FIRST LEGO® League for children 9-14 years old, and the Junior FIRST LEGO League for 6 to 9 year olds. To learn more about FIRST, go to www.usfirst.org.

CANYON CREST ACADEMY ROBOTICS TEAM WINS NASA GRANT

CARMEL VALLEY, CALIFORNIA—November 30, 2009— Canyon Crest Academy’s FIRST Robotics Competition Team, has been awarded a $6,500 grant from NASA. CCA is one of three high schools in San Diego to capture the prestigious award.

To win the award, the team had to complete a lengthy application to NASA proving that it has the ability to design, program and build a sophisticated robot in a six week time frame. Formed in September, CCA’s team includes 89 students, two teachers and eight mentor engineers.

“The funding from NASA will allow our team to compete in the FIRST San Diego Regional Robotics Competition in March,” says team President Logan Mercer, a junior at CCA. “The funds will be used to purchase robot parts and to pay the entry fees to the Regional competition.”

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics is a national nonprofit organization that encourages students to discover the rewards and excitement of science, engineering and technology. Working with professional mentors, students are challenged to design, build, and program their robot to perform a complicated set of tasks. Each year is a new engineering challenge as the robot specifications and game rules change. The kick-off for the 2010 season is January 9 when FIRST announces this year’s game.

CCA’s Robotics Team will face off against 44 other high school teams at the San Diego Regional Competition, March 4-6, 2010, at the San Diego Sports Arena. The team has been meeting three times a week after school and at lunch to work on its programming, design and fabrication skills. “We are a rookie team, but we’ll be ready,” says Mercer. “We have a lot of talented students on our team and a great relationship with our mentors.”

CCA’s Competition Robotics Team is mentored by CCA computer programming teacher Michael Remington and physics and engineering teacher Stephen Yip. In addition, professional engineers Stephen Cowen, the Neurosciences Institute, Jim Dufour, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Ken Farinsky, Scala, Inc., Joel Hartley, ProCon, Inc., Jeff Krusen, Mike Lindberg, IEEE, Dave Walborn, ViaSat, Inc., and Mike Wang, Hewlett Packard, Inc. will advise the team.

The 2010 FIRST Robotics season is expected to include 1,700 high school teams from around the world competing in 43 Regional events. The National Championships will be held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta in April, 2010. Participants are eligible to receive more than $10 million in scholarships from some of the finest science and engineering universities and colleges in the country.

Located at 5951 Village Center Loop Road off the SR-56 freeway, Canyon Crest Academy is a part of the San Dieguito Union High School District. CCA is a “school of choice”, accepting students from throughout the district. Current enrollment is approximately 1800 students in grades 9-12, with the 2008-2009 students earning the highest public school API in San Diego County. Information about CCA may be found at the school website, www2.sduhsd.net/cc.

In addition to NASA, CCA’s Robotics Team is sponsored by the Nordson Asymtek Corporation, www.nordson.com and the CCA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit all volunteer organization that supports the educational programs at CCA. For information on additional sponsorship opportunities for the CCA FIRST Robotics Competition team, please contact robotics@canyoncrestfoundation.org or visit CCA Foundation at www.canyoncrestfoundation.org.