The Knight Owls

Northern Secondary School

Northern Secondary School, or as we like to call it, NSS, is located near the heart of Toronto, Ontario. Northern is the largest secondary school in the Toronto District School Board with almost twenty three hundred students; it was founded in September 1930. NSS offers many programs such as the Specialist High Skills Major Program as well as gifted, technology and business streams.

What We've Been Doing

Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, parents, students, School Foundation, Parent Council, School Council, our school, and the tech department, we have been able to participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). FRC is an international robotics competition where high school teams design, build and program a robot to compete in a themed game. Throughout the build-season we have been able to develop our skills across various fields including: computer aided design (CAD) software, computerized numerical control (CNC) machines, 3D printers, programming, electronics control system design, business development and problem-solving.

Our Impact

The FIRST Robotics Competition is very focused on inspiring the engineers, programmers and entrepreneurs of the future. We, as a team participating in FIRST events, are doing our part to contribute to our community by providing opportunities for local youth to engage in STEM activities and become compassionate about the field. We run workshops at local schools and community centers to reach a large audience of young learners, and to inspire them with regards to STEM, but also FIRST's values.

Our Subteams

Design

The design team leads the design of the robot. We use OnShape as our CAD software of choice to design and model various parts and components for our robots.

Someone using a cutoff wheel producing sparks

Manufacturing

The manufacturing team is responsible for the manufacturing of the robot. We use a variety of tools such as 3D printers, CNC machines, and laser cutters to create the parts and components for our robots.

Programming

The programming team codes the 'brain' of the robot. The language of choice for FRC robots is Java since it provides a great balance between performance and control over systems and functionality.

Outreach

The outreach team is a combination of the media and business subteams. They're in charge of connecting and working with the community, leading the team's social media presence, and managing the team's finances including all of the fundraising.