About Us

Team 1241, Theory6, is based at Rick Hansen Secondary School in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. We participate in two robotics competitions each season, FIRST and VEX Robotics. As students of Rick Hansen Secondary School Theory6 believes in the motto that Rick Hansen himself embodies, “The End Is Just The Beginning”.


Our History

FIRST Team 1241 – Team Hansen Experience of Robotic Youth (Theory6) began as an initiative between Rick Hansen Secondary School (RHSS) and General Motors of Canada. This partnership was the creation of Theory6, which has grown over the years to become one of the largest endeavours at Rick Hansen. The idea of a robotics team instantly ignited the passion of students and teachers who were enthusiastic about Science and Technology. This was a new beginning for the school, showing that there were not only athletes who could compete in physical challenges, but also mental ones.

Over the course of Theory6’s first season, 2004, in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), we travelled to Michigan for the Great Lakes Regional, the Greater Toronto Regional and the World Championships in Atlanta, GA. The team won the hearts of the competitors and judges alike, showing that while they were rookies, they knew how to compete at the highest level of competition by winning the Rookie All-Star and Rookie Inspiration awards. The crowning glory was winning the Daimler Chrysler Spirit Award at the World Championships, paving the way for the team’s future.

Following up our success in our rookie year, Theory6 decided to participate in the new Canadian regional hosted at the University of Waterloo and our home regional in Toronto. At Waterloo, we partnered with one of the teams we faced in our Rookie year Team 68 – Truck Town Thunder and another Canadian sophomore Team 1305 – Ice Cubed, and were able to claim our first regional victory with some solid defence. At home for the Greater Toronto Regional, we won FIRST’s most prestigious award in our second year, taking home the coveted Chairman’s award. The World Championships were a difficult challenge; after which we began to rethink our strategy for the next year in FIRST.

After performing strongly in our first two years, Theory6 decided to represent Canada at the Arizona regional, where we lost closely in the regional Finals. Complementing our performance, we also won the Engineering Inspiration award qualifying us for the World Championships. At home in Toronto, we were the recipients of the General Motors Industrial Design award. After a hectic time at the World Championships, we returned to the drawing board to plan for the coming years.

Over the next four years, the seniors on our team graduated and we had a new set of students to train in the ways of FIRST. In 2007, we reached the finals at the Greater Toronto Regional with Teams 854 – Iron Bear and 1305 – Ice Cubed, losing by inches as we failed to gather adequate bonus points at the end of the third finals match, where we also won the Delphi Driving Tomorrows Technology award. The following year was when Theory6 was at its lowest ebb, with quick losses in the elimination rounds at both regional competitions. However, we still pull of dramatic upsets on one of the world champions of the year, showing we were a competitive team even in a difficult year. Following the sub-par performance, Theory6 decided to redouble our efforts towards success and created one of our most impressive machines for Lunacy.

After a mediocre season in 2008, Theory6 approached the new FIRST challenge with calm and collected approach. Creating a wonderful machine to compete with, Theory6 implemented an autonomous tracking system, along with an adaptive traction control system to smoothly control our robot. In the season, we won the Imagery award for representing our spirit and enthusiasm for FIRST on the robot and through the team. Complementing this performance the following year, was another Imagery award win, along with the Woodie Flowers award being presented to our founding Teacher and Mentor, Mr. John Hobbins. This acted as a motivational tool, and brought forth many of the team’s alumni back into action and mentoring Theory6.

With months of dedication poured into Theory6; the students, teachers, mentors and parents were able to reap the rewards in the 2011 FRC, Logo-Motion. Travelling to three regional competitions, Theory6 captured the Engineering Inspiration award at the GTR East Regional and finished as finalists at the Buckeye Regional with Teams 781 – Kinetic Knights and 1126 - SparX, we felt back on track for a successful run at the World Championships, held for the first time in St Louis, MO. In the Curie division, facing a variety of veteran powerhouses and inspirational rookie teams, Theory6 was able to power through the qualification rounds with the only undefeated record at the Championship event, and ended up as first ranked team in the division. Although we lost in the semi-finals of the division to one of the veteran champions, it left us hungry for more and Theory6 showed that we are back with the same passion that drove us to success in our initial years in the FIRST Robotics Competition.