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This photo shows the Sabre Bytes Robotics team after our 1st place finish at the Smoky Mountains Regional competition.

Welcome to the Sabre Bytes Robotics website! We are located at Sandwich Secondary School in LaSalle, Ontario in Canada. The Sabre Bytes' team was established in 2001 as part of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics. Each year in January, FIRST assigns a task where students are given six weeks to build a robot according to task specifications. Teams are given a kit of parts and materials in order to design and build a robot capable of accomplishing the game task.

Our team consists of 24 high school students and 13 mentors. The team is divided into five sections: Mechanical, Electrical, Programming, Public Relations, and Communications. The Mechanical, Electrical and Programming sections work together to build a robot that can complete the task assigned to us in January. The Public Relations section raises money through fundraising efforts, contacts sponsors, and completes a detailed business plan. The Communications section designs the website, creates an animation based on the task given, produces flyers and documents our team’s progress with pictures and videos. Our team is one of over 4000 teams worldwide, ours being currently the only one in Essex County. The Sabre Bytes usually attend two to three regional competitions each year, in Canada and the United States. If our team wins a regional competition, we have the opportunity to attend the World Championships which is held this year in St. Louis, Missouri.

A major responsibility our team consists of fundraising. Without the necessary funds the team cannot function. We raise the necessary funds by hosting dances for students from local elementary schools in grade seven and eight. These dances are held in our school's gymnasium. We are also currently mentoring a rookie FLL (FIRST Lego League) team at our local elementary school, Sandwich West Public School. We also informed our local boy scouts group of this year's game, showed them our robots of previous years and allowed them have the experience of driving the robots and designed their own.

FIRST provides us with a rare opportunity in the hands on world of science and technology. We look forward to sharing our experience with the rest of our community and exposing even more elementary and high school students to take advantage of this remarkable program that Sandwich Secondary School offers. To read more about the FLL team click on the FLL team link on the right side of your screen.