Four Livingston Robotics (LRC) teams won awards in the regional FIRST LEGO League (FLL) “Food Factor” qualifiers on November 19 and December 3, with three of these teams advancing to the NJ FLL State Championship in Mount Olive this Saturday: Exit 5 Robotics 4669, Supreme Machine #4754 and Alpha Force Reloaded #4751.
On November 19 at the Clifton High School qualifier, the five team members of “Supreme Machine,” took home First Place Robot Performance and First Place Robot Design, as well as currently holding the highest published robot scores of 208 in NJ. The LRC rookie team Technome participated in the same Clifton qualifier, did a great job and had a good experience.
Alpha Force Reloaded also competed in the Bergen regional qualifier last month. They took First Place in Robot Design. Alpha Force was “reloaded” with a lot more members this year. This enrichment team is comprised of a group of friends in 3rd grade and a group of friends in 7th grade.
On Saturday December 3 at the pilot Liberty Science Center FIRST LEGO League Qualifier hosted by FTC team Landroids #4220, LRC team Exit 5 Robotics performed admirably with the overall Champion’s Award and 1st place Robot Performance Award.
Exit 5 members consisted of fifth and seven grade girls who took turns operating the robot at the competition table. Their research project focused on the problems of cross contamination and salmonella prevention in the chicken cooking/preparation process.
Rookie team Power Legends #6516 went to the Liberty Science Center competition, their first, with a couple of goals: have fun and do your best. The Power Legends is mentored by team Landrias #4282 and member of team Landroids. Power Legends began late in the season and decided from the start to enjoy learning about robotics and the FLL theme, and to follow the FLL Core Values, which are, above all, to have fun! The highlight of the day for the Power Legends was when the four boys won the prestigious Judges’ Award.
Meanwhile, team Landrias, an all-girl state-championship winning FLL team of LRC, decided not to compete this year, and instead took on new roles as mentors and event volunteers for the FLL program. The girls volunteered at the Metuchen practice tournament on November 13 and Liberty Science Center regional qualifier on December 3.
Photos from the 12/3/11 Liberty Science Center FLL Qualifier can be viewed on Landroids’ FaceBook and Liberty Science Center’s FaceBook.
On Saturday December 10, LRC teams Alpha Force Reloaded, Exit 5 Robotics, and Supreme Machine will compete in the all-day NJ FLL State Championship at Mount Olive High School in Flanders. Three Junior FLL teams from LRC, Brain Builders, DragoBots and MIGO Ranbots will also participate in Jr.FLL Expo for children ages 6-9 which is coincided with the FLL Championship event and held at the same location.
