NYC/NJ FIRST community has recently revamped its website to post the latest information in JFLL, FLL, FTC and FRC. Therefore, to see a list of participating teams at various qualifying tournaments and the winners from these events, please go to nycnjfirst.org
Three LRC wins at Hillsborough
November 23rd, 2009
Three Livingston Robotics Club (LRC) teams attended the Hillsborough qualifying event on 11/21/09. Landroids #109, Thunderclan #3375 and Alpha Force #3360 each won the Champion’s Award, 1st place research and 1st place technical presentation respectively. These teams also placed #3, #7 and #8 in robot performance out of 23 attending teams.
Landroids had encountered major difficulties with the overhead flood lights which had severely affected the robot light sensor readings and navigation onto the bridge. Nevertheless, the team managed to make some last minute robot and program modifications to gain some scores back in the last round.
(l to r) Alpha Force, Landroids, Thunderclan at Hillsborough Qualifier 11/21/09
These winnings at the Hillsborough tournament have been a great season opening for Livingston Robotics Club. Three other teams — r2d2 #436, SciBotech #2385, and Landrias #3724 — will compete at Montclair Qualifier on December 4th; and Technophiles #3088 will compete at Sparta Qualifier on December 5th. Winning teams from these regional qualifying tournaments will advance onto the New Jersey State Championship Tournament at Mt. Olive High School in Flanders on December 12th. Our LRC Jr. FLL team, Spongebots, will be joining everyone there for a “Smart Move” exhibition.
For Hillsborough FLL event photos, click here.
LRC on LTV
November 2nd, 2009
Livingston Robotics Club teams will be seen on Livingston Television on November 15, 2009.
Livingston Television (LTV) will produce its second annual LIVE telecast, “A Celebration of Livingston,” on Sunday, November 15 from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm at the Senior/Community Center and will air LIVE. Livingston Robotics Club (LRC) has been invited to be interviewed during this live broadcast. Representing our Club for this event will be our youngest teams, the Spongebots and r2d2.
Spongebots is the only Junior FIRST LEGO League (Jr.FLL) team in LRC, consists of three kindergarteners and three first graders from Harrison School. The team has been working on demonstrating how a computer and a cat would move from one place to another, and they build models and write robotics programs using the LEGO WeDo robotics platform.
r2d2 is made up of six 4th grade boys, and it is coached by a group of team moms. The team has been working on “Walk 4 GREEN & B Fit” as their research project, and received extensive robotics training from Storming Robots Center. r2d2 will be providing a live demonstration of this year’s Smart Move robot missions.
The LTV broadcast can be seen on Comcast Channel 34 and Verizon Fios Channel 26, and will feature many other Livingston community members and organizations, with a live studio audience of Livingston residents.
“Gearing Up”
October 14th, 2009
Watch this one-hour documentary chronicles behind-the-scenes drama and excitement leading up to the 2008 FIRST Robotics Competition. Teams receive identical robot kits with no instructions and have just six weeks to build a robot capable of performing specific tasks.
The documentary follows four teams through their regional competitions. Miss Daisy is a seasoned team from Ambler, Pennsylvania. RoboDoves is a small, all-girl rookie team from Baltimore, Maryland. Rambotics is a team of teenagers incarcerated at the Ridge View Academy correctional facility for boys in Watkins, Colorado. And Ratchet Rockers is a group of suburban kids from Wentzville, Missouri, near St. Louis.
All of the young people and their mentors demonstrate the ingenuity, determination and teamwork required to compete in FIRST Robotics – “the varsity sport of the mind.”
For New Jersey viewers, this documentary will be shown on NJN on November 2, 2009, 9:00 PM, and repeat on NJN2 for the remainder week, check local listing and time.
NJN1 Verizon Fio channel 515 or Comcast channel 261
NJN2 Verizon Fio channel 476 or Comcast channel 262
For airing schedule outside of NJ, see listing and time.
Collaboration and Mentoring Thailand FLL
October 7th, 2009
Since 2002, K-12 curriculum standards in Thailand have continued to be modernized with a goal to include extra-curricular activities to encourage hands-on learning experience that can be related to real-life situations. One of the objectives is to enhance technology education
FIRST LEGO League (FLL) robotics program had been considered for Thailand in order to encourage teachers and students to develop programming and other non-technical skills with integrated subject areas in one program. In April 2009, Thailand signed an agreement to be one the latest FLL international partners with a planned national tournament to be held in Bangkok on December 12, 2009. The Champion’s Award winner will represent Thailand in FLL Open International Championship which will be held on May 6, 2010 in Taiwan. The organizer, Gammco (Thailand) Co., Ltd., anticipates having 20 FLL teams in 2009 as a pilot year and more than 50 teams for next year.
Upon learning of the first FLL tournament in Thailand, Livingston Robotics Club (LRC) started a collaborative project with FLL Thailand organizer in June 2009 to provide assistance in organizing the first FLL tournament in Thailand. With many new FLL teams that need to learn different aspects of FLL competition in a relatively short period of time, there is a need to provide teams with as much additional training resources as possible. With this collaboration, the 2009 1st place US Open Champion’s Award team Landroids has agreed to offer the training materials that were used in the 2009 New Jersey FLL summer orientation sessions for the Thailand teams to use as a platform to jump start the team training. These training materials were compiled by the five Landroids members based on their experience and specialties, in a “Kids teaching Kids” format to prepare the new FLL teams for the competitions.
LRC member, Surasit Nithikasem, painstakingly translated over 300 slides of PowerPoint presentations from English to Thai; and edited them to overcome the language and cultural differences. These training materials cover both technical and non-technical aspects of FLL competitions, which will be beneficial to the teams in Thailand (as well as all other new FLL teams), not only to get an overall picture of FLL, but also on how to excel in the competitions and to attain important life-skills from participating in FLL.
For more information, see Landroids’ FLL team training web page dedicated to the Thailand teams and also the official Thailand FLL site.
Livingston Eco Fair Project Presentation, 10/4/09
October 6th, 2009
Representing the Livingston Robotics Club, Landroids and the sister team Landrias had presented their Smart Move projects to the community as a part of the October 4, 2009 Livingston Eco Fair exhibition. At this town-wide event, both teams showcased their past and present research projects, demonstrated that the FIRST LEGO League is not just about building robots.
For weeks, the teams have been working hard on their research projects. First was to develop a broad base understanding in various types, modes and constraints of transportation, then brainstorm new topics each week for further research, leading to a short list of transportation problems, then finally zoom in on the topics that most affecting our immediate community. While the Landroids like to conduct the team research discussions through video conferencing on the weeknights, the Landrias prefer working overtime on the weekends. Both teams have gathered statistics, facts, field data, survey poll, and compiled preliminary solutions on the presentation boards. Base on visitors’ feedback and comments, both teams will continue their research effort and further discuss the findings with experts in the field.
All other Livingston Robotics Club teams are also busy working on their research, field trips and designing the robots for the qualifying events that are coming up in late November and early December.
LRC at Livingston Eco Fair 2009 showcasing FLL research projects
Landroids presented their Smart Move project with statistics and potential solutions regarding a transportation problem in the community.
Landrias presented their Smart Move project and conduct on-site survey to 80+ visitors.
Smart Move Score Sheet in Thai
September 22nd, 2009
As part of the continue and collaborative effort to translate Techbrick‘s Smart Move score sheet to different world languages, Surasit Nithikasem from Livingston Robotics Club and FLL Thailand (they translated the rules) had translated the score sheet in Thai for the 30 some start up FLL teams in Thaland .
Chinese Robot Mission Score Sheets
September 20th, 2009
The TechBrick FLL Smart Move Robot Mission Worksheet has now been translated to traditional and simplified Chinese. Thanks to the Landroids parent William Dong for making the translations. The worksheet can help the Chinese speaking teams to quickly track and tally up the robot scores. For more TechBrick FLL resources, click here.
Smart Move Mission Video
September 13th, 2009
A new FLL Smart Move mission video has been strung together and posted on YouTube (with narrative).
Smart Move Challenge Release
September 3rd, 2009
Smart Move: Transforming Transportation
The waiting is over! The FIRST LEGO League Smart Move challenge release: September 3, 2009, at 12 noon Easter Time.
Can FIRST LEGO League teams transform the way we look at transportation? The key to the 2009 “Smart Move” Challenge is accessing people, places, goods and services in the safest, most efficient way possible. In this journey, teams will consider many modes of transportation beyond their daily routine and streamline their options by making smart moves!
FLL Oreintation – Part V Public Speaking & Preparing for Judging Sessions, 8/6/09
August 7th, 2009
Part 5 and also the final NJ FLL orientation workshop,”Public Speaking and Prepare for Judging Sessions”, was held on 8/6/09. It covered the importance of practicing speaking and presenting in public, and provided tips on preparing for the judging sessions. Various participants had to think on their feet to come up with some clever answers and funny stories. Teams also practice to be judged or be the judges, while pretending to “sell” their robots and their LEGO creation.
At least 40 hours were invested by each of the five Landroids members to research, compile the Powerpoint slides, design team activities, rehearse and conduct the 2-hour presentation covered 8 different topics. This 5-weeks, 10-hours total, in-depth FLL orientation has now been successfully concluded.
On August 1, 2009, Landroids marked our 2-year anniversary in FIRST LEGO League. This summer workshop presentation and the tutorial materials compiled by our team members are Landroids’ gift to the FLL community. We want to pass on what we learned, reduce new team’s learning curve, and start a tradition in kids mentoring kids.
To teams #436 r2d2, #492 EdisionLegoClub, #1617 Lightningbots, #3349 Girl Scouts of Northern NJ, #3360 Lightning Missions, #3375 Thunderclan, as well as #3724 Landrias, plus JFLL #103 Spongebots, who had attended these orientation sessions, team Landroids hoped that you had fun hanging out with us, and sincerely wish you the best of luck in the “Smart Move” season!
FLL Orientation – Part IV Documentation & Robot Performance, 7/30/09
August 5th, 2009
Part 4 of the FLL summer orientation “Documentation & Robot Performance” held on 7/30/09 discussed the importance of note taking, how to prepare a team information sheet and team brochure, plus many tips on compiling checklists to be well-prepared for the robot performance competition. Teams got quizzed on how much information they retained by just listening and no note taking. Many also participated in rounds of cheering to see how the effects of positive or negative cheering can affect the robot handlers. The final session of this 5-week orientation will be on 8/6/09. Read more »
FLL Orientation – Part III Teamwork & Robot Mission Strategy, 7/23/09
July 29th, 2009
Part III of the FLL summer orientation “Teamwork & Robot Mission Strategy” on 7/23/09 was again an interactive evening with team activities. During the first half of the workshop we talked about the importance of teamwork and acted out several common “blamestorming” scenarios, which got some good laughs. Each team then was to build the tallest structure using marshmallows and angel hair pasta while being observed by other team’s coaches. Most participants ate their building materials to facilitate cleanup. The second half of the workshop was devoted to strategizing robot missions, how to analyze the play mat, and ways to maximize scores. Read more »
FLL Orientation – Part II Project Research, 7/16/09
July 21st, 2009
Part II of the FLL summer orientation “Project Research” covered 10 steps on how to do a research project, from pre-season all the way to the competition. In a fun and interactive way, teams learned to understand the FLL requirements, brainstorm and summarize findings, and
develop an innovative solution and create their own presentation styles. Landroids also took time to explain our award winning Climate Connection project in detail as an example of the FLL research process. Teams had fun participating in a brainstorming exercise to think and present their ideas on the spot. Read more »
FLL Orientation – Part I Robot Design & Programming, 7/9/09
July 10th, 2009
The NJ FLL summer orientation series is on!
Part I for “Robot Design and Programming” was held on 7/9/09. Landroids’s lead designer and programmer, Karlin, prepared and conducted a 2-hr presentation discussing various types of platforms, gears, gear ratios, wheels, and sensors, plus a live demonstration of NXT-G and Robolab programming short cuts and blocks. Six new FLL teams participated in this session, and join in on a game of human robot using different sensors (none, touch, light, ultrasound, sound, and rotation) to get from point A to point B. For participants responses, click here. Read more »
Livingston FTC Scrimmage, 6/27/09
June 27th, 2009
It was great fun today at the Livingston FTC Scrimmage to meet up with the FTC mentoring teams, the FTC new comers and our old friends from FLL. Landroids spent the day volunteering and participated in the FTC alliance games, going head-to-head with the FLL graduates such as RoboInvaders and Nano Guru. Special thanks to the veteran FTC teams from North Brunswick HS, Morrestown Friends School, Ridgefield HS and Livingston HS, to demonstrate their Tetrix robots and paired up with the rookies. Also, many thanks to Vince and Pat for tirelessly organizing this event, and for Livingston HS to host the first of a series of 2009 FTC summer outreach and workshops. For pictures from the event, click here.
Dean Kamen in Popsci
June 18th, 2009
There is an interesting article in the June ’09 issue of Popular Science Magazine about Dean Kamen and FIRST. Have you ever wonder why Dean always wears jeans and jean shirt? What did he invent? What does he do for fun? Somewhere, somehow, find out why is he so obsessed with FIRST. Read on.
FLL Promo Videos
June 12th, 2009
Check out Landroids in these latest FLL Promo videos (on vimeo.com)
Attention all recent FLL Graduates:
June 8th, 2009
NJ FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) will be hosting a series of summer Outreach Scrimmages. First stop, the northern region event will be held at Livingston High School on June 27, 2009.
For those FLL teams who are ready to start an FTC team, this “Outreach Scrimmage” is a perfect pre-season opportunity to learn what FTC is all about. Read more »
Free Summer FLL Orientation Sessions
June 6th, 2009
If you are new to the FIRST LEGO League, this 5-week free summer training is designed for the FLL rookies (students and coaches).
Starting on 7/9/09, each Thursday evening from 7 pm to 9 pm, the Landroids members will present a 2-hour FLL training session to give an overview of the FLL preparation and competition.
Week 1: Robot Design and Programming (in Robolab and NXT-G) – Karlin
Week 2: Project Research - Gregory
Week 3: Team work and Robot Strategy – Stanley
Week 4: Documenting, prepare for robot competition – Jeffrey
Week 5: Public Presentation, prepare for judging sessions – Gage Read more »
Landroids’ Press and Photos
May 19th, 2009
It has been an exciting week coming home from Ohio. First, we had to make up all the missing homework, tests and final exam. Then there were many hours spent with the reporters. In between, some of us managed to squeeze in a fishing tournament, while all of us got to munch on the macadamia nut chocolates (courtesy of Iolani Roboraiders).
This week, Landroids has been featured in the Star Ledger, HCHY, AlternateivePress, West Essex Tribune, Battelle announcement and the World Journal. Team photos from the US Open are now available. Check out the excitements! Wouldn’t you want to be in FLL this season?
Landroids won 1st Place Champion’s Award at 2009 FLL US Open!
May 11th, 2009
Team Landroids, represented New Jersey, competed in the 2009 FIRST LEGO League United States Open Championship held in Dayton, Ohio from 5/7/09 – 5/9/09 (results, 5 pages), winning teams. With 9 months of hard work and dedication, our team of five 7th graders took home:
Landroids at 2009 FLL US Open
- 1st place Champion’s Award, which is the most prestigious award for excellent performance in Research Project, Robot Design, and Team Work.
- Battelle Award for Innovation in Science, which is a $6,000 STEM scholarship, plus each student will have his own Battelle mentor from now till they graduate from college, for summer internship and future career placement consultations.
- The Wright Paterson Air Force Base Founder’s Award for outstanding educational and community outreach.
- 1st place Robot Alliance Award: Iolani Roboraiders + Landroids + ZBOTs
Go Spartans!!
- 6th place in Robot Performance, out of 60 State Champion’s teams from US.
- Multiple Gracious Professionalism acknowledgements.
It has been an amazing journey meeting all the FLL Champion’s teams from around the country. We were very surprised and pleased to receive these recognitions.
Community Links
May 2nd, 2009
Landroids’s website and Livingston Robotics Club (LRC) are now linked with HCHY (Healthy Communithy Healthy Youth of Livingston) and Alternative Press (an online community newspaper). Read more »
Get Ready to Make the Move
April 29th, 2009
Transforming Transportation
The FIRST LEGO League Smart Move team registration starts on May 4, 2009, at 12 noon Easter Time. You can set up an user account now. Read more »
The Heat is On!
April 15th, 2009
Starting this week, the 2009 FIRST LEGO League (FLL) World Festival, Open European Championship and US Open Championship are in full swing!
(4/16/09 – 4/18/09, Atlanta, GA USA. 84 teams)
An international FLL competition takes place along side with the FTC and FRC teams all compete at Georgia Dome.
5/1/09 – 5/3/09, at Copenhagen, Denmark. 52 teams)
An international competition where 6 teams are selected to work with experts to make an implementation plan for their research project. Winners, Robot Scores
United State Open Championship
(5/7/09 – 5/9/09 at Dayton, Ohio, USA. 60 teams)
A national competition where the State Champion’s Award winner from each State Tournament (see map)will meet up with other teams from US.
Landroids is gearing up to attend the US Open in a few weeks!
Catch the latest FIRST Atlanta 2009 news from Twitter, and NASA Webcast (Einstein/FLL 8 AM – 4 PM Live 4/16 – 4/17) this week.
FIRST LEGO League at Liberty Science Center 2/16/09
February 17th, 2009
How do you get six NJ top FLL teams in one room for an all-day play date?
At Liberty Science Center FIRST LEGO League Exhibition on 2/16/09, these teams were proud to present their Climate Connections research projects to hundreds of visitors, and had multiple aliance races.
(2009 FLL photos, Eweek volunteers photos, Legomaster photos).
Read more »
February ’09 Events
January 27th, 2009
Just when you think that the NJ FIRST LEGO League season is over, there are still plenty going on in the month of February.
First up is the NJ FIRST Tech Challenge on 2/7/09 held at The College of New Jersey. If you are wondering what do some of the FLL graduates take on as the next challenge, go check out the NJ FTC Championship tournament. You might see some familiar faces there from the former FLL teams. Best time to go is in the afternoon during the elimination rounds.
The week of 2/15/09 is the National Engineers Week. Landroids has started a FIRST LEGO League exhibition at the Liberty Science Center last year (see 2008 photos and 2009 flyer). We are again honored to have other elite FLL teams to join us as volunteers and FLL advocates for a day to show the visitors our robots and the research projects. This is truly a FLL play date in a non-competitive setting for teams to hang out together and have some fun. Come visit us at Liberty Science Center on President’s Day Monday 2/16/09. Say hi to RoboInvaders, SciBoTechs, Landrias, Robot Rangers, and Say Watt?. There will be other LEGO building and robotics programming workshops host by the Legomaster and Storming Robots Center.
Finally, let’s not forget about the high school level FIRST Robotics Competition at the end of February. This year, these FRC robots have to “play hoops” on a low-friction surface by skidding and sliding to dodge the balls thrown by the opponents into their robot trailers. Landroids and the FTC State Champion team will be at the NJ FRC tournament to cheer for the big robots. If you want to see all three FIRST divisions (FLL, FTC and FRC) in one day, come out on 2/28/09.
For more information about these events, see our team event calendar.
2009 FLL Challenge
December 16th, 2008
Transforming Transportation
Can FIRST LEGO League teams transform the way we look at transportation? The key to the 2009 “Smart Move” Challenge is accessing people, places, goods and services in the safest, most efficient way possible. In this journey, teams will consider many modes of transportation beyond their daily routine and streamline their options by making smart moves!
NJ State Tournament Winners 12/13/08
December 15th, 2008
1st Champion’s Award: 653 Landroids
2nd Champion’s Award: 3900 Robo Invaders
1st Robot Performance: 3900 Robo Invaders
2nd Robot Performance: 653 Landroids
3rd Robot Performance: 6397 ARCTICS
1st Technical Presentation: 3521 Short Circuit
2nd Technical Presentation: 312 Landrias
3rd Technical Presentation: 1324 Sci-Borgs
1st Research Presentation: 6114 The Wizards
2nd Research Presentation: 3804 SciBoTechs
3rd Research Presentation: 2469 Robo Cows
1st Teamwork: 3590 Green Hawks
2nd Teamwork: 6397 ARCTICS
3rd Teamwork: 3519 Robo Rangers
Adult Mentor Award: Lynn Roe
Volunteer Award: Monique Dituri
Aainst All Odds: 2341 Burning COOL Machine
Judge’s Award: 417 Robot Rangers
Team Spirit: 5763 Challengers
