Team

Landroids is a 5th-year, neighborhood robotics team from Livingston, NJ that were formed with a group of friends. Most of the members had known each other since kindergarten. As the founding team of the Livingston Robotics Club (LRC), Landroids started as a FIRST LEGO League (FLL) team in August 2007. After 3 years of FLL, in 2010, Landroids moved up to FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC). Now, with all of the members in 10th grade, Landroids is the oldest team in LRC, and over the years, has inspired many other students in the Livingston area to participate in FIRST.

Our team is highly focused in science research, robotics competitions, and community outreach. Our members regularly meet 25 to 30 hours a week year-round, exploring different learning opportunities, and participate in various STEM related challenges and activities together on the weekends.

Our training philosophy is that the learning experience is more important than winning. As reflected in our approaches to various competitions and challenges, everything is a science/engineering project.

We believe that the harder we work, the more we learn, the higher chances we have in succeeding.

Landroids Members
	Stanley Cheung (Electronics, Protoboard, Programmer, Research Compilation) Age: 15 (FIRST experience: 4 years)
	My main role in the team is to design electronic prototype board, work on custom sensors, understand all rules and develop strategies. I can program in NXT-G, RobotC and LabVIEW. I love to play soccer for fun, figure out how things work, and run for stress relief. I also like to play violin, program Android apps, and run for the high school cross country and track team. My slogan is “Innovation is created by limitation”.

	Gage Farestad (PTC/Pro-E CAD Rendering, LEGO Digital Designer, Robot Builder) Age: 15 (FIRST experience: 4 years)
	My specialty in the team is CAD designs and renderings, which I am proficient in PTC Pro-Engineer and LEGO Digital Designer. I love science, math, and working with my hands. I am good with public speaking, making presentations, editing in Photoshop and prepare graphics presentation. I am currently learning Chinese (not that we speak Chinese on the team, but at least I understand it). In my free time, l like to read a lot and enjoy outdoor activities such as hiking. When I grow up, I hope to be an engineer or a scientist.
	Brian Lee (Lead Programmer, Samantha, Sensors, Driver Coach, Researcher) Age: 15 (FIRST experience: 3 years)
	I love learning about science and math-related subjects, and the experimentation involved. I especially enjoy programming, and am fluent in RobotC, NXT-G, LabVIEW, and some Java. On the team, I take care of the robot field control software, tele-op programming, sensors and algorithms, also knowing the rules. In my spare time, I play cello (having been on the NJ Youth Orchestra and NJ All State Intermediate Orchestra), read, and play tennis. In the future, I would like to either be a computer or electrical engineer.

	Vijay Menon (Robot Driver, Builder, Parts Management) Age: 15 (FIRST experience: 5 years)
	This is my 2nd season with Landroids, since I moved from Portland, OR to NJ in June, 2010. I have had three years of FLL experience plus one year of FTC experience with team “Short Circuits” prior to joining the Landroids in 2010. I am mainly the robot driver on the team, and take care of getting the robot prep for competitions. At school, my favorite subjects are math and science. My hobbies include playing tennis, swimming, reading, playing the piano and clarinet, as well as playing video games. I also enjoy making movies on iMOVIE.

	Karlin Yeh (Lead Robot Designer/Builder/Programmer, Robot Driver, Innovative Designs) Age: 15 (FIRST experience: 5 years)
	I am the main robot builder and designer on the team, love to work with my hands and visualize mechanism in 3-D. I am proficient in Robolab, NXT-G, RobotC, LabView, and basic Java, typically handle the autonomous portion of the robot programming. I also regularly utilize Autodesk Inventor and Pro-E Creo to design and make 3-D prototypes design on my MakerBot. Water sports such as windsurfing, sailing, kayaking, scuba diving, and fishing are my favorite. I also like biking, and downhill skiing. I my spare time, I breed dwarf cichlids and shrimp. In the future, I would like to be in marine engineering or design submarines.

	Ivana Chu (Lead Scouter, Graphics and Bulletin Board Designer) Age: 15 (FIRST experience: 2 years)
	I have 2 years of FLL experience with Landroid’s sister team, the Landrias, which I was the lead robot builder and programmer. In February 2011, I joined Landroids and went to the St. Louis World Championship representing both the Landroids in FTC and the Landrias in FLL. Since Landroids and Landrias were trained side-by-side, the transition and integration between the two teams were very easy. My role on Landroids is taking care of the Bill of Materials, graphics design, scouting, file management and field building. This season, I plan to do more robot building since I really love to build things.
Age as of Sept. 1, 2011
	John Yeh (FLL/FTC Robotics Coach, Co-Founder and VP of Livingston Robotics Club, Director of LRC FTC Division)
	Probably the biggest kid in the bunch. I am a computer engineer specialized in logic analyzer and hardware design, but more like a jack of all trades with any kind of mechanical, electrical, electronics and plumbing or carpentry work.

	Pearl Hwang, PE, LEED AP (FLL/FTC Judging & Project Coach, Co-Founder and President of Livingston Robotics Club, Director of LRC FLL Division)
	I am a site/civil engineer and a project manager by trade. I oversee the team management, strategical planning, public relationship, marketing, coaches training and develop robotics curriculum for team start-up.

Landroids’ Alumni

	Sam Yang (8/10 – 8/11) (FTC Robot Driver, Builder, Scouting Analysis)
	I spent the first year of FTC with team Lancer #3415 and my 2nd season with the Landroids, 3rd season back to team Lancer. My main task on the Landroids was robot building, drive the robot and oversee the scouting results. I play multiple instruments including the guitar and piano. I also play tennis competitively, very active in Boy Scout, and enjoy playing ultimate frisbee. My favorite subject is science, and I am also on the high school Science Olympiad team.
	Jeffrey Dong (8/07 – 9/10) (FLL Robot Handler, Documentation, Video Essay)
	My specialty in the team was documenting the team progress and compiling the video essay. I like watching sports such as baseball and keeping active. At school, my favorite subjects are English and History. Outside of school, I enjoy listening to music and socializing with friends, play with my Xbox 360, and play basketball. Athletically, I play tennis and swim competitively. I have also been playing violin and piano for 6 ½ years. After 3 seasons of FLL with the Landroids, in September, 2010, I transfered to a private school and have to devote more time to school work, swimming, lacrosse and drama.
	Gregory Vuong (8/07 – 12/09) (FLL Lead Writer and Presenter)
	I have been playing with LEGO since pre-school but somehow always get frustrated by how hard it is sometimes to put pieces together the way I envision them. I spent a summer learning RoboLab and it has helped me in programming in NXT-G as well. In school, I am in the band and play basketball. For the Smart Move season, I have learned to use LabView for data analysis. After 3 seasons with this team, I have decided to devote more time in my school work. I have since took on fencing as a competitive sports and is currently on the school debate team.
	Zachary Katz (8/07 – 3/09) (FLL Robot Designer and Handler, Programmer, Lead Researcher)
	I was in another FLL team in 2006 before joining this very competitive team in 2007 for 2 years. I love competitive swimming, tennis, soccer, skiing and also play piano. I have an extremely busy school and activity schedule, so in 2009, I decided to concentrate on swimming Zone. I still hang out with the team whenever I can during the summers, but starting 2011-12, I am attending an out-of-state boarding school, much harder to meet up with the team. In the future, I would like to be an architect or an engineer because I like designing and building rockets, robots, houses, bridges, and amusement parks.
	Jonathan Chen (8/07 – 12/08) (FLL Presentation Board Designer)
	My interest was in building and working with my hands, especially working with LEGO. I enjoy making PowerPoint and building robots. For fun, I like to read, ski, play violin, piano, ripstick, golf, scooter, bike, strategy games and video games. My favorite animals are seals, koalas, dogs, and platypuses. In the future, I would like to be a business person, dentist, or an architect.