2023 is a Year to Remember

OBA Annual General Meeting

Term 2 marked the culmination of the robotics season for our students as we reached the highly anticipated World Championships in America.

However, the 2023 season will hold a significant place in the history of robotics at Barker. This year, not only did our highly regarded FRC team have the privilege of representing our country once more on the global stage, but it also marks a new milestone for our school, as we ventured into the VEX World Championships for the first time with our Senior School team and the Dhupuma Barker team, known as the Djirikitj Firebirds. This achievement is particularly noteworthy as the Firebirds become the first robotics team from the Northern Territory and remote Australia, making history on this special year that marks the 10th anniversary of robotics at Barker.

FRC - FIRST Robotics Competition

After securing two undefeated regional wins in Canada and Australia, as well as achieving a finalist finish in Hawaii, the time had come for our FRC team to shift their focus towards representing the country for the ninth time at the FIRST Robotics World Championship. This event brought together 800 teams from across the globe to compete in Houston for the ultimate title of world champions. The competition was fierce and our team was ready to face the challenge head-on.

Having earned the reputation of being one the fastest robots in the whole event, our team entered the field with great confidence and after ten intense qualification matches and averaging 13 game pieces placed per match, the Redbacks secured a spot in the 1st alliance for elimination rounds, a testament to their outstanding performance.

Passing through three elimination phases on the upper bracket with a solid performance under pressure, our team came very close to clinching a spot in the super finals. However, they fell just short and ended up as finalists for the division, a remarkable achievement that marked the end of this extraordinary season.

The Barker Redbacks outstanding strategy, design, and engineering prowess were recognised this season with the following prestigious awards:

• Canadian Pacific Champions

• Southern Cross Regional Champions

• Hawaii Regional Finalists

• World Championship Division Finalists

• Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors (Australian Nationals)

• Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors (Canadian Pacific Regional)

• Excellence in Engineering Award (Hawaii Regional)

• Quality Award (Green Country Regional)

• FIRST Dean's List Finalist Award (Corinne Zhou)

• FIRST Dean's List Finalist Award (Justin Qin)

Congratulation to all our mentors, coaches and the more than 40 students from Years 10, 11 and 12 for this amazing season!

VEX Robotics Competition

After qualifying as the top scorer in Australia at the end of last year, our Year 10 Computer Science students joined forces with the Year 9 VRC+ robotics program, to represent the country for the first time at the HS VEX Robotics World Championship. The event held in Dallas, featured 800 teams from across the globe, with this year’s challenge based on a ultimate frisbee competition, where the robots had to launch frisbees across the field with pinpoint precision to reach one of the elevated goals. Despite being newcomers to this stage, the Barker robot was an impressive shooter and had demonstrated to perform consistently against heavy defence. The team ended up seeding 12th out of 100 teams in the Science division, which would by itself be an amazing result, but with a clutch performance and amazing under pressure response, the Barker Redbacks allied with a team from the Beijing Bayil School, reaching the semi-final and leaving the competition jubilant about the future of VEX at Barker.