Back in January, Landroids has already won the #2 Inspire Award and the Winning Alliance Award  at the Delaware FTC State Championship on 1/28/12. Just last weekend, Landroids again took the #1 Inspire Award and Winning Alliance at the South Central Pennsylvania Qualifier on 2/18/12.  The team has proven to be a role model team, a top contender in all judged categories, and a strong competitor on the competition field.

On President’s Day, Landroids hosted the 5th annual Liberty Science Center Engineers Week Robotics Exhibition, invited a dozen teams, over 100 FIRST members and volunteers for a joint exhibition. Approximately 4,000 people visited the science center on this day.

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The Washington Science Club in turn showed some of the work they had done in previous years at Stevens Institute of Technology with NXT powered submersibles (very impressive!).  We got an in-depth look (laugh here) at the robots that had been setup to go for a swim with Nemo.  The 90 minutes visit swam by quickly.  We very much look forward to seeing the boys and girls of Washington Middle School at upcoming events.

The team demonstrated  their competition robot on the Food Factor game field and handled questions from the inquisitive audience.  Extra robots were also on-hand for kids to program on the spot.  Even an hour after opening, the larger than expected attendance wrapped around the building in a line just to enter the event.  Morris Museum’s festival also included a Lego People’s Choice Contest for best Lego creations, Lego art exhibition, and a large display of toy trains up to 40 ft long.

(Photo:  Exit 5 Robotics won 2nd place NJ FLL State Champion’s Award, received an autograph from FLL Engineer, Scott Evans).

Early robot accuracy and navigation issues befell the team throughout the morning practice sessions and even the first round of competition.  After some nifty program twiddling and quick mechanical mods, the robot found its groove on the second round for the finishing 1st place score.  With a project research focused on the poultry process, the team presented a solution to prevent the spread of salmonella in the kitchen with a UV-C based cutting board sanitizer.

With very little rest, the girls are looking forward to the rapidly approaching state finals on December 10.

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.