History of Robotics Jesuit All Sparks 2848
2014 First World Championship
2016 Dallas FRC Regional
2017 3rd Place First World Championship
Jesuit’s Robotics Program began in 2008 – 2009 “sponsored by the JCPenny Afterschool Fund, PTC, and Burns Controls. [It] was successful in its inaugural FIRST Robotics Competition . . . at S. M. U. The team won the Rookie All-Star Award for demonstrating professionalism, spirit, team identity, and advanced robot design” (Preston Hollow People 4/3/09).
The team evolved from the Jesuit Engineering Club with faculty moderators Mr. Michael Couvillon ’94, Ms. Julie Carver, and Mr. Andrew Dondis in charge. In an interview with Jesuit Today Spring 2009, Couvillon stated that he began the robotics program because of its “unique opportunity for high school students for several reasons . . . the degree of challenge . . .is relevance is remarkable because students are working with industry-standard, leading-edge technology . . . [and the students] are working alongside professional engineers. They are learning and applying actual engineering, sophisticated computer modeling, and programming.”
Couvillon added that the team has been aided by “Steve Alaniz ’71, the JCPenney Afterschool fund, Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC), Burns Controls Company, Exxon/Mobil, and the FIRST organization itself. Nelson Caperton, Barry Weller and Brian Nauyokas from PTC have provided our students with engineering guidance and mentoring.”
The Dallas Morning News reported in April of 2010 that the three day competition held at the Dallas Convention Center competed for the first time in a worldwide competition. The contest pitted teams against “one another to see whose robot can carry the most footballs across a playing field.”
In a school email dated April 27, 2010, Couvillon stated that “the competition consisted of 400 teams from more than a dozen countries. We finished in the top half of our division with a record of 4 wins and 4 losses. . . . Every problem [the students] faced just sparked their curiosity and desire to solve problems.” In another internal email dated May 13, 2011, Couvillon announced that CNN would air a special about education including robotics, and PBS would air a documentary on FIRST, Gearing Up. The team has been working in an abandoned store in the Valley View Mall, but it began in Couvillon’s garage and then moved “to half a closet in the band hall” (Preston Hollow People Apr. 1, 2011).
The summer 2014 edition of Jesuit Today reported that the Jesuit team “was part of a four-team winning alliance that captured the coveted world title . . . . in St. Louis.” The other teams were Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, CA, Bloomfield Hills and Holland, both in Michigan. In the last 10 seconds, the team won with a 280-250 victory. The “team qualified for the national championships in its first year as a competitive program. The All Sparks, which have received regional and national accolades every year since entering FIRST, out
paced the top nine teams in Texas last summer en route to a victory in the Texas Roundup Off-Season Event and a claim on the unofficial Texas state championship. As winners of this year’s FRC World Championship, Jesuit Dallas has earned an automatic qualification into next year’s field.”
The May 9, 2014 Texas Catholic noted that teams included all 50 states and numerous world teams. “The team, which has received regional and national accolades every year since entering FIRST, outpaced the top nine teams in Texas last summer.”
In 2016 the Robotics team won finished “as the top team at the tournament. The All Sparks collected additional hardware by winning the Innovation in Control Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation. It was the second time since 2012 that the All Sparks secured that specific honor” (The Jesuit Today Summer 2016).
The Jesuit Today Summer 2017 reported that the team “capped another successful competitive season with a third-place finish at the 2017 FIRST World Championship . . . . [with] 700 teams and 33 countries.”
