We’re a passionate and dedicated group of students who are the Robotics Club of Marc Garneau CI, a secondary school located in Flemingdon Park, Toronto. We aim to introduce students to robotics and spark a lifelong interest in the STEM field. We provide hardware, learning materials, and opportunities for students to explore programming and hardware concepts, while instilling important virtues such as teamwork and dedication in our members through competition—both amongst ourselves and against others.

Achievements

Competition/Award Years Received
FIRST Robotics Competition -
Ontario Rookie All Star Award 2022
Rookie All Star Award 2022
Rookie Inspiration Award 2022
Highest Rookie Seed Award 2022
Rookie Design Award 2021
UOIT Sumobots -
Champion 2018, 2019
Finalists 2015, 2016, 2019
Most Novel Design 2018, 2019
Best Engineering Award 2018
Best New School Award 2015
Zone01 -
Earth Pushing Challenge Silver Award 2016 (x2)
Earth Pushing Challenge Bronze Award 2016​

Our History

MGCI Robotics has a relatively short history when compared to other clubs—but we’ve come a long way. The club was originally started by Saiyam Patel back in 2014, when it was just four friends who competed in Zone01 and made it to the nationals. It officially registered in 2015 with a total of 14 people, and competed in the UOIT Sumobots competition. The grade 9 team made it to the semifinals and was awarded with the Best New School Award. In the same year, the members competed at Zone01 and won second place. In 2016, we did not receive any supervision or funding from the school. With only 12 members, they tried their very best at Zone01 but it was a lackluster year. Most of the seniors had quit except for a grade 11 (Jeremy Phy), the club had lost all semblence of stucture, and once again did not receive any school support.

On the bright side, there were 16 new members from grade 9 including 2 girls, the first in the club. 2018 was when the club began restructuring with the influence of the new members. The club decided to focus on training new members and competing in smaller robotics competitions to grow. We finally received enough funding to purchase 2 Lego Mindstorms kits, and also borrowed some kits from members. With those, we were able to win the Most Novel Design and Best Engineering Awards. By the end of the 2018-2019 school year, the club had 36 members and 9 girls. In 2019, the club continued its expansion. Applications had to be held due to the popularity of the club, and we swept three different awards at Sumobots!

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. While initially unsure of how to hold a robotics club in a virtual environment, we eventually decided to continue holding workshops and participating in events online. We held a wide variety of programming, building, and strategy workshops, and won our first FRC award—the Rookie Design Award. Now there were over 70 members, almost half of which were female. While our history may be short, we are expanding rapidly. There are more than 100 members in the 2021 iteration of MGCI Robotics, and it will be our first build season. Join MGCI Robotics today to make your mark on our future!

From Our First President

“MGCI Robotics Club has a long history. Look back at where it came from and appreciate where it is right now. I won’t bore you with all the details of the drama but if you’re curious just ask; are plenty of stories. For future contributors, I recommend you keep track of membership, competition results and the general vision for the club at the time. An effort has been made to track female engagement in a push for diversity in engineering. I encourage you to continue with outreach to those who are less privileged at MGCI; everyone deserves a chance to experience the beauty of robotics. Be good, dream big, God bless” - Jeremy Phy