Tag: Competition

Posted on

Zebra Robotics Wraps Up an Incredible 2025 WRO Season

With the conclusion of the World Robot Olympiad (WRO) in Singapore on November 28th, Zebra Robotics proudly marks the end of another remarkable competition season.
It was one filled with innovation, resilience, and countless moments of growth for our students.

Since 2016, Zebra Robotics has worked to prepare high-performance teams capable of representing Canada on the global stage. Our mission has always been to help young innovators develop not only technical skills, but the confidence, composure, and collaborative spirit required to excel in international robotics & coding competitions. We have participated in WRO nearly every year since 2016 and we always come back with numerous inspiring stories of hard work and success.

Here is what our teams did this 2025 Season!

1. Slovenia – Open Championship Europe (September 2025)
Our season kicked off in Slovenia, where RoboCare Innovations represented Zebra Robotics Burlington at the first Open Championship of the year. Competing in the Future Innovators category, the team earned an impressive 5th place overall and took home a silver award for their advanced healthcare-focused robotic solution. Their project stood out for its creativity and potential impact on medical systems worldwide.

2. Panama – Open Championship Americas (October 2025)
At the Americas Championship in Panama, two teams from Zebra Robotics demonstrated what passion and perseverance can achieve.
Pink Boba Pearls secured 4th place in the Future Engineers category, inspiring many younger students with their rapid skill development and dedication. Learning to code from scratch turned into their robot BETI. What started as an idea became a symbol of their perseverance and creativity.

Berry & Teddy, one of the youngest teams to represent Canada in their category, competed against mostly high-school and university students. Learning how to program and build EV3 models just for this competition, they exceeded expectations and narrowly missed the playoffs with their tennis robots, “Berry” and “Teddy.”

These teams from our Ajax and Meadowvale locations showed that age is no barrier when curiosity and determination lead the way.

3. Singapore – WRO Worlds (November 2025)
The world stage in Singapore gathered delegates from 87 countries for one of the most competitive WRO events to date. Coming off a clean sweep of first place in three categories at the WRO Nationals in Montreal (May 2025), Zebra Robotics Meadowvale proudly sent three teams to the Singapore Worlds Competition to represent Canada.

Parallax (Robo Mission Senior) impressed spectators and judges alike with their highly detailed robot design. Despite unexpected sensor and mechanical challenges on Day 2, the team worked tirelessly to troubleshoot and made a strong comeback by Day 3.

In the Future Innovators category, Team R&D finished 4th, missing a podium finish by only 0.5 points, while Team Electrostatics claimed 7th place.

Continuing Canada’s Legacy at WRO

In a competition historically dominated by Eastern nations, Canada continues to rise as a strong Western presence, and Zebra Robotics is honoured to be part of that movement.
Over the past several years, Zebra Robotics teams have consistently ranked in the top 10 globally at WRO Internationals. Our students’ commitment to learning, problem-solving, and innovation drives us forward year after year.
As we celebrate an exciting 2025 season, we are already gearing up for 2026. New projects are underway, new teams are forming, and the passion for robotics within our community is stronger than ever.
Here’s to another year of inspiring students, building world-class teams, and pushing the boundaries of robotics education in Canada.

Stay tuned—2026 is going to be big!!

Posted on

The Heartbeat of Robotics: What Makes a Zebra Mentor Special

At Zebra’s STRIPE competitions since 2022, we’ve noticed something beautiful: the most successful teams aren’t always the ones with the fanciest robots. They’re the ones whose coaches have mastered the delicate art of teaching kids how to think, not what to think.

You know that moment when a student’s eyes light up—not because they got the right answer, but because they finally understand the question? That’s where the real magic happens in robotics mentorship.

Let me introduce you to three such mentors who’ve left permanent fingerprints on our programs.Their approaches are as different as their personalities, but they all share one secret ingredient: they remember what it felt like to be a beginner.

The Mentor Who Says Less to Teach More

You’ll find Coach Sanjana in her natural habitat: sitting cross-legged on the floor surrounded by frustrated middle schoolers, asking dangerous questions like:

“What would happen if we tried the exact opposite of what the instructions suggest?”

Her superpower? Silence. She’ll watch a robot fail spectacularly three times before gently asking, “What pattern do you see in these crashes?” The moment when students realize she’s known the solution all along—but let them discover it themselves—is pure gold.

“During Last STRIPE season,” she told me, “a student rebuilt our entire chassis because I wouldn’t tell her which screw was loose. She named the robot ‘The Professor’ because it taught her more than I ever could.”

The Mentor Who Builds Families, Not Just Teams

Coach Tahmoor runs his team like a tiny startup where everyone has two titles: their technical role and their human role. You might be the “Lead Programmer and Chief Encouragement Officer” or the “Hardware Specialist and Conflict Resolver.”

His secret weapon? The “Before We Build” ritual:

  1. Share one non-robotics thing happening in your life
  2. Name one teammate’s strength you’re grateful for
  3. Predict one thing that will go wrong today (and laugh about it in advance)

“We thought we’d lost our star coder when her family relocated last November,” Tahmoor remembers. “But every Tuesday at 4 PM, without fail, her pixelated face would appear on our laptop screen, troubleshooting code from 2,000 miles away. Some bonds outlast zip codes.”

The Mentor Who Keeps the Play in Programming

Coach Vikram workspace looks like a mad scientist’s birthday party. There’s a “Wall of Epic Fails” celebrating broken prototypes, a few drone bots, and a couple of 3d printers 

His philosophy? “If you’re not occasionally laughing so hard that soda comes out your nose, you’re doing robotics wrong.”

When tensions run high before competitions, he’ll suddenly announce: “Emergency dance party! Your robot can’t learn from stressed-out humans.” The kids groan every time—and every time, it works.

“The real win isn’t trophies,” Vikram says. “It’s when alumni visit and say, ‘I chose my major because of how you made circuits feel like play.’”

The Thread That Connects Them

What makes these Zebra mentors extraordinary isn’t their technical expertise (though they have plenty). It’s that they:

  • Listen to what students aren’t saying (the nervous fidgeting, the hesitation to ask for help)
  • Remember that robotics is just the vehicle for teaching resilience and creativity
  • Measure success in lightbulb moments, not just scoreboard results

As one parent wrote to us: “My daughter came home and said, ‘My coach believes in me more than I believe in myself.’ That’s the kind of math that really adds up.”

To all the mentors reading this—whether you’re with Zebra or cheering from elsewhere—thank you for being the quiet force behind so many young discoverers.The robots are lucky to have you.

Posted on

Announcements

September 2022 Roundup

Oakville Grand Opening

This October 29th we are excited to be hosting our Oakville location’s open house! We have been working hard to set up this new location and welcome the bright minds of Oakville’s future engineers. Come by the centre located at 407 Iroquois Shore Rd Unit #10 Oakville, Ontario L6H 1M3 for a showcase of all Zebra Robotics has to offer. Join us for the grand opening and receive $50 towards your first month of enrollment in any of our courses!

Competitions

This upcoming November, Zebra Robotics’ very own Woodchucks (Shruti, Nila, and Riyanshi) and The Nulls (Vedant, Dave and Elil) are advancing to WRO internationals to compete at the highest level in Dortmund, Germany. mark your calendars for November 17th, 18th and 19th as our teams compete with over a hundred teams from all around the world for the win! Both teams are already hard at work revamping their robots to face the challenge!

Zebra Robotics’ WRO teams, The Woodchucks which is our first all-girls team, The Nulls, AVA (Vishal and Adam), and the PutPockets (Arya, Daxson, and Josh) all made us very proud, bringing home awards and two teams going as far as advancing to the international level. We are so happy to announce that of the five teams representing Canada on the international level in Dortmund, Germany, two of them came from right here at Zebra Robotics. We are proud of all our teams and excited to see our finalists compete at the highest level!

Fundraising For Our Teams

This competition season we are offering some exclusive limited-run Zebra Robotics merch as a fundraiser for our team’s competing season! We are releasing T-Shirts and Sweatshirts that commemorate our teams and all the success they have had. Share in our pride and support current teams in their continued success as they take their passion for STEM and robotics to Dortmund, Germany! Support for the teams is welcome in any way as we try to make their learning and competition experience a fun and memorable one!