Our History:
Following the conclusion of a local highs schools FIRST Robotics program, our members wanted to continue offering students a chance to learn industry skills and STEM concepts through the FIRST Robotics Program.
Burlington Community Robotics was founded in May 2024, and aims to give all students in our area the opportunity to get a hands on experience learning key concepts and skills in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Our Experienced Team
With over a 120+ years of combined experience, the BCR Leadership Team and Mentors have deep roots in FRC Programs. Most current mentors started as students members on their high school’s FRC Team; many of which returning in a mentorship role upon graduation. Other members have joined over the years as parent volunteers or industry experts driven to invest in STEM education.
Our mentors represent multiple industries/skill sets, including product design, automotive, process automation, manufacturing, information technology, electrical engineering, programming, carpentry, business, marketing, communications, and more.
Setting Students up For Success
Founded in 2006, the original high school team competed in 17 years of FIRST Robotics competitions. During that time, the team grew from 8 students to 65+ students per season and our pool of active mentors has grown from one teacher to over 15 community volunteers.
To date over 200 students have participated in the program and 95% have gone on to post secondary education or high skills trades. Many of our mentors are former students who have returned to support the team.
A History of Excellence in STEM Learning Opportunities & Achievements
While the student experience has always come first, in recent years the team has also grown to become a consistent top performer globally. With 8 FRC event wins in the past five seasons, including a Provincial Championship in 2023. The team has also regularly took home awards for Industrial Design, Autonomous capabilities, Quality, Creativity, Innovation in Control and Excellence in Engineering – they are one of only 29 teams in the world who have won all the FIRST event engineering awards at least twice.
In our final competition season in 2024 the team Seeded #1 on it’s field at the World Championships in Houston, TX. and finished the season as a Top 50 Globally ranked team.
Competing at this level provides the team not just with experience designing and building the robot, but also skills in strategy development, data collection & analysis and collaboration with other teams from across Ontario, and the world.
Our Current Goals:
We have three primary goals for the coming year:
1. Establish the Burlington Community Robotics organization
We aim to continue the momentum created by the original team, while expanding our mission to make FIRST robotics accessible to all students in Burlington through the creation of Burlington Community Robotics (BCR) – throughout the rest of 2024 we will be formalizing the organization, developing YPP and other operating policies and plans for a FIRST Robotics program to kick off in Fall of this year. [Learn more about how you can support this goal]
2. Establish a BCR First Robotics Team for the 2025 Competition Season
Today there are only two high school FIRST Robotics Competition teams in Burlington and no community teams in the city. Between the Public and Catholic School boards that leaves students from six high schools in the area without opportunities to participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition. [Help us establish a team accessible to all Burlington students]
3. Establish a facility to house BCR operations and FRC meeting/build space
The biggest challenge facing any robotics team is space and manufacturing capabilities. To ensure we give participants the most robust experience we are seeking to establish a home base in central Burlington for the program that can allow the team to come together that is equipped with the necessary tools and equipment to give the students hands on practical experience with modern tools and technologies like they will encounter in the real world in their adult life. [Support creating a home for BCR]
Our Future Goals
Once we have met our immediate goals our intention is to gradually expand BCR to provide opportunities to a wider range of age groups through programs such as First Lego League or First Technical Challenge as well as providing year-round programming based around the core STEM skill sets learned in the Robotics programs.