FLL

NYC FIRST Teams Take the Pledge!

NYC FIRST teams from Bay Ridge to the northern most neighborhoods in the Bronx have taken Dean Kamen’s homework challenge to heart by pledging to bring almost 300 new spectators to the NYC Mega-Event next weekend (March 12-14).  At this year’s Kickoff teams across the country were given the homework assignment of bringing new spectators to a FIRST event.

If you are on a team and have not signed up online to take the FIRST Spectator Pledge you can do so by going HERE.  You can also see by event which regional events have invited the most spectators.  Let’s represent NYC make it the largest regional in the country!

NYC FIRST FLL Regional at Javits Basic Information

Eighty winning teams selected from among nearly 200 that competed at five borough FLL qualifying tournaments will be in-line for New York City’s top honors.

The 2010 New York City FIRST LEGO League Championship is free and open to the public. Bring family and friends and be part of the New York City’s celebration of kids working smart in science and technology!

Venue Address:

Jacob Javits Convention Center
655 West 34th Street
New York, NY 10001

Need directions to the venue? Click here
For parking information Click here
For public transportation information Click here

For a list of food concessions with the Javits Center, please click HERE.
For a list of local restaurants, please click HERE

Contact:

For additional information, please contact Mark Sharfshteyn at msharf@optonline.net or (347) 739-1836.

NJ FIRST Featured at Liberty Science Center Engineers Week Exhibition

Liberty Science Center was a New Jersey FIRST robotics playground on the President’s Day, February 15, 2010. As a part the Engineers Week celebration, twelve New Jersey award winning teams invited by the FIRST LEGO League team Landroids #109, came together in one room for an ultimate New Jersey FIRST play date and the annual robotics exhibition.  This event attracted thousands of visitors from the tri-state areas.  Parents were presented with an overview of the FIRST curriculum from K-12; many inquired about where to find a nearby team and how to join or start up a team.  The children got to play with fascinating hands-on LEGO models with many exciting opportunities to operate robots of various sizes.  Meanwhile, all the FIRST teams mingled across the divisions throughout the day, checked out each other’s research projects, robot designs, plus exchanged ideas and training tips. Of course, team members also took an advantage to visit other Liberty Science Center exhibits.  Many will meet again head to head in the upcoming competitions.  However, on this day, it is about showcasing FIRST and the each team’s hard work. It is also about networking and socializing in a relaxed, fun, and non-competitive venue.

Many Hi-Five’s to all the participating FTC, FLL and Jr. FLL teams, and the support from the NJ FTC Committee:

FIRST Tech Challenge:  #3539 Say Watt?, #247 The reVOLT, #248 Fatal Error, and #3415 Lancers.

FIRST LEGO League:  #109 Landroids, #4832 The Atoms Family, #3691 HMS Platinum, #4104 Yobotics, #4764 Bergen Bees

Jr. FIRST LEGO League:  #103 Spongebots, #465 Special Lego Builder, and Red Cedar Robotics

See Team LANDROIDS Facebook for additional event photos.

NYC FIRST Robotics Teams–Have You Done Your Homework?

It’s time to make FIRST a spectator sport and infect the masses with a spirit of play, invention and innovation.

Here are 10 easy ideas to get your team started:

1.  Promote the NYC 2010 Science and Technology Career Expo at your school.  Print the flier located HERE and distribute to your school’s administration, parent’s association, school leadership team, parent coordinator, college counselors and guidance team.  Remember that there are $12 million+ in scholarships available through FIRST!

2. Does your team have a bulletin board in the school hall or a display case?  Update it with the flier and some recent pictures.

3. Show your school spirit at the FRC competition.  Bring along your school mascot and cheerleaders!

4. Invite your friends, family, and neighbors to the event.  People are looking for fun free things to do!

5. Post the flier on local bulletin boards.  Your apartment building, middle school, elementary school, pediatrician’s office, may all have bulletin boards.  Remember that Sunday, March 14th also features the FLL Championship & the younger kids would love to be there!

6. Ask local businesses to put the flier in their window.

7. Use your online skills to create interest & buzz via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube films of the robots, etc.

8. Find your team alumni and invite them to the competition.  Invite them back for a ship date celebration & the competition.

9. Find your school alumni and invite them to the competition.  The classes of 2000, 1990, 1980 are all planning reunion events. Can you find them on Facebook,  LinkedIn or Classmates.com?   Grab them while they are feeling nostalgic!

10.  Invite your sponsors to the event and to visit you in the pit.  Let them know how much you appreciate their support!

We want your team to get Straight A’s on your homework.  Good Luck!

Liberty Science Center Eweek Exhibition 2010

Where: Chalsty Center (ground floor), Liberty Science Center, 222 Jersey City Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ

When: Monday, February 15, 2010 (10:00 – 15:00)

The FIRST LEGO League (FLL) team Landroids #109 is hosting the 3^rd annual Liberty Science Center (LSC) FLL exhibition during Engineers Week on Monday February 15, 2010 (President’s Day). Each year, the top New Jersey FIRST LEGO League teams are invited to gather as volunteers for a day of robot demonstration and research project presentation to 3,500 to 4,000 visitors.

This year, the event will also include the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) and the Jr. FIRST LEGO League (Jr. FLL), forming a link between all three divisions, spanning from kindergarten to the high school level. More than 80 students and coaches from all over New Jersey will be volunteering in this event.  Separate programming presentations offered by Storming Robots and LEGO models will also be on display. It will be a fun robotics day!

This LSC exhibition is a non-competitive, networking opportunity for the NJ teams. It is also a wonderful opportunity for parents and children who are interested in getting involved to see the robots up-close, and be able to chat with the teams and the coaches for more information.

For the attending team list, see  2010 LSC FLL team flyer

To see the past event photos, click HERE.

NJ FIRST LEGO League 2009 State Championship Results

After three months of robot design and project research, 46 FIRST LEGO League (FLL) teams out of 141 teams in NJ were selected from nine qualifying events throughout the State. They had gathered on December 12^th, 2009 at the Mt. Olive High School in Flanders, NJ to compete for the New Jersey State Champion title. The Champion’s Award winner received an invitation to the FLL World Festival which is to be held in April, 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia to compete with 84 teams from 35 countries.

The FIRST LEGO League is an annual international science and robotics competition for students age 9 to 14. Each year, a different real-life but open-ended challenge topic and robot missions are announced globally in the beginning of September. Students have to determine their own project topic, interview experts, conduct research, and share their findings and innovative solutions with the community. In addition, each team has to design an autonomous robot using only LEGO parts to perform a set of predetermined missions in 2-1/2 minutes.

This year’s “Smart Move” challenge is about transportation. Each team has to identified a problem and proposed improvements in safety and efficiency of transportation in their community. Students are encouraged to explore science, technology, engineering and math in this volunteer/ mentor-based competition, while learning valuable life skills such as teamwork, problem solving, time management and public speaking.

As visitors and participants entered the Mt. Olive High School, the lobby area was filled with opportunities to enjoy! After registration, teams had the opportunity to decorate their pit areas and participated in robot practice rounds. Teams were invited in raffle drawings, purchase FIRST memorabilia and T-shirts, and demo the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) robots.

In the morning of the tournament, there were three 15-minute back-to-back closed door judging sessions for teams to meet with different panels of judges. Over 40 judges challenged the students in various skills. These judges were from the Jersey City Board Of Education, the NJ FLL prime sponsor Sanofi-Aventis, adult mentors from numerous FRC teams, and many local business executives to compile this group of scoring experts.

Teams were to present their research projects in a creative way, go through the technical interview about their robot designs, and solve a teamwork challenge in a cooperative manner. Throughout the morning, there were also robot practice and many last minute fine tunings of the robot programming at the pit areas. Many teams chose to take this opportunity to get a closer look at each other’s robot design and the project boards, took pictures and socialize, while the coaches exchanged ideas and experiences.

The FLL opening ceremony started shortly after lunch to initiate the robot performance rounds in a sport arena type of setting. The Mt. Olive High School Principal, Mr. Kevin Stansberry and School Superintendent Dr. Larrie Reynolds, as well as Mount Olive Robotics Team (MORT) welcomed all participants and spectators.

The robot performance competition was the most exciting and nerve racking part of the competition by far. Each team had 3 chances to compete head-to-head in pairs to complete a set of pre-assigned missions in the autonomous mode in 2.5 minutes. This was where practice and good design plus luck would prevail to achieve the perfect 400 points. Cheering, music, and thumping from the spectator bleachers can be heard throughout the afternoon. Many people were taking photos and videos up close to catch all the actions of their favorite teams. Limited two robot handlers were allowed at the competition table during any given time each round; and these students must be able to operate the robot, make on the spot strategy decisions, verified the scores, and identify the problem areas to make corrections or adjustments before the next round.

After hours of fast-pace and intense competitions, the winners of this year’s project research, robot design, teamwork, and robot performance were announced, along with the mentor award, judges and team spirit awards were given out. This year’s 1^st place robot performance winner, HMS Platinum from Hillsborough, NJ achieved two rounds of perfect 400 points. The 2^nd place Robot Performance winner and also the 2^nd place Champion’s Award recipient, NanoGurus #6831, was a 4^th-year neighborhood team from Parsippany, NJ. After being two consecutive years as the NJ State Champion and the FLL ambassador, in their 3^rd and final FLL season, team Landroids #109 pass the torch the new 1^st place Champion’s Award winner, The Atoms Family #4832. Even though the Atoms Family has ranked #5 in the robot performance score, the Champion’s Award was given to a team who, in the big picture, was the strongest in all of the four categories combined: Research, Robot Design, Robot Performance, and Teamwork. By receiving this most prestigious award in FLL, this 4^th year neighborhood team from Roxbury, NJ will be representing New Jersey at the FLL World Festival in Atlanta, GA.

Also coinciding with the FLL State Championship is the New Jersey Junior FIRST LEGO League (Jr.FLL) Expo held at the high school library. Jr.FLL is a non-competitive robotics program for student ages six to nine. Students were asked to work on a “Smart Move” project by learning about how people, animals, and things are moved from one place to another. Students need to hunt for answers and create a poster to demonstrate their findings. They also need to use LEGO bricks with an option to use a LEGO robotics kit to build their models. Eight Jr.FLL teams from around the State participated in the event. Each team received a trophy and each child received a certificate for their participation.

This concluded the New Jersey FLL and Jr.FLL 2009 “Smart Move” season. See below for a complete list of 2009 NJ FIRST LEGO League State tournament winners. For the Daily Record news video coverage of this tournament, click HERE.

New Jersey FLL highlighted in DailyRecord Video

The New Jersey Daily Record has posted a video highlighting the New Jersey FIRST® LEGO League State Championship help at Mount Olive High School.  Click Here to see the video.

NJ FIRST LEGO League Newark Winner List

The following are the winners from NJ FIRST LEGO League Newark Qualifier on 12/5/09:

NYC FIRST LEGO League Staten Island Qualifier

Qualifying tournament open to all registered NYC FLL Teams in Staten Island. To register, please contact Donny Swanson at dswanson@schools.nyc.gov.

Where Wagner College 1 Campus Rd, Staten Island, NY 10304
When: Sunday, January 10, 2010
Start Time: 9:00 AM
End Time: 12:30 PM
Cost: $30 Per Team
Payment Details: Write check out to “I.S. 24 School Fund”
Mail it to:
Deric Borrero
225 Cleveland Avenue
Staten Island, NY 10308
Phone: 718-356-4200 ext 207 or 917-681-2461
Max Number of Teams: 40
Teams Registered: 0
Food: Buy on site or bring your own.
Special Instructions: All registration payments must be received by Monday, January 4th, 2010

NYC FIRST LEGO League Manhattan Practice Tournament

Practice event open to FLL teams in the Manhattan. For more information and to register, please contact Robert Juchnicki at robert.juchnicki@gmail.com

Where: Stuyvesant H.S. 345 Chambers St, New York, NY 10282
When: Sunday, December 20, 2009 (Cancelled due to snow)
Start Time: 9:30 AM
End Time: 1:00 PM
Cost: Free
Max Number of Teams: 12
Teams Registered: 5
Food: Food will not be provided. Teams should bring their
own food because it does take a while to get to restaurants outside of
the school.