Travis Robotics Takes First Place and Advances to Regional Championship

The Travis robotics team, Iron Reign, competed in the First Lego League Regional (FLL) Qualifier at UTA on December 3rd.  Over 30 teams competed to win one of 10 invitations to the Regional Championship Tournament on January 21st.  Iron Reign earned one of those invitations and also won the first place trophy in one of the three judged events (Project) for their robotic salad bar concept.  More info about FLL and this year's Food Factor challenge can be found here.

The team consists of ten Travis students in grades four through seven.  Seven students returned from last year's rookie team.  The team:  Jayesh Sharma, Max Virani, Griffith Samore, Caitlin Rogers, Tycho Virani, Trace Hamada, Evan Daane, Ethan Helfman, Alexander Canright and Aiden Helfman.

Next up:  The Regional Championship, co-hosted by the Museum of Nature and Science and The Hockaday School, takes place on January 21st at the Hockaday campus.  Fifty teams, ten from each of five qualifiers, are expected to comptete.  Visitors are welcome.  The judged events are held behind closed doors, but the Robot Game (robotic tabletop challenges) is public and held throughout the day.  Each team will have at least 3 public matches.  More information will be posted here shortly before the tournament.


Front Row:  Trace Hamada, Ethan Helfman, Tycho Virani, Aiden Helfman, Evan Daane, Griffith Samore, Alexander Canright
Back Row:  Coach Karim, Jayesh Sharma, Caitlin Rogers, Coach Cathy, Max Virani

Regional Championship Results:

The 2010/11 Regional Championship Tournament was held at Hockaday on January 29th, 2011.  There were over 50 qualifying teams from a larger regional pool of over 130. Iron Reign was one of the few rookie teams, so we went there expecting to learn a lot from the more seasoned competitors.  Mostly we were looking to have some fun and represent Travis with enthusiasm and hard work.  We managed to win the 3rd place trophy in the Robot Design category and 7th place in the Robot Game standings.  Go Travis!

Iron Reign Qualifies!

Congratulations to the Travis Robotics First Lego League Team - Iron Reign.  The 8 young men from Travis competed in the UT Arlington Qualifying tournament for FLL on December 4th, 2010.  Of the 33 teams present, only 13 qualified to move on to the regional competition at the end of January.  As a rookie team, this is a remarkable achievement, so please give our boys a pat on the back.


OK, boys this is what you get for being so cooperative for photos.  Left to right starting from the back row:  Jayesh, Max, Josh, Tycho, Ethan, Trace, Griffith, Evan.

Teams were scored in 4 events.  In the robot game, the team programmed a robot to navigate a field containing a number of missions.  The robot gets points for completing this missions.  The team cannot remote-control the robot - it has to rely on its sensors and its programming.  Iron Reign took 3rd place in this category.  The team was also judged on their robot's technical design, their teamwork and their biomedical engineering project.  For this project, they built a powered glove that can assist those who have diminished gripping capacity due to paralysis or disease.  They presented their glove design to Dwight Putnam, a  Prosthetic Picasso at Scottish Rite Hospital.  The team learned much from Mr. Putnam about how different the challenges are in building just the right prosthesis for each patient's particular needs.

How to get started in the Robotics Club

The robotics club is in its' third year at Travis. It is being held during the Tuesday after school program, in Mr. Shulte's classroom. There are currently 21 students enrolled in the club. Enrollment in the club is based on the available space and equipment.  The goal is to have no more than about 3 kids per Lego "Brick" so that everyone has a hands on experience.  Experienced Iron Reign team member are expected to be group leaders and mentors for the beginners in the club.  The club instructor is Cathy Lux.

The club is also our feeder for the Travis Robotics Team. The FLL Travis team name is Iron Reign.  The team took this name from an astronomy program about extra-solar system planets: a large Jupiter sized planet which orbits closer to its' star might experience rains of "molten iron" ; hence, "Iron Rain."    

To join the team, students need to be in the Robotics Club and also commit to weekend team workdays. There is room for up to 10 students on the team and preference is given to veteran team members as long as they meet the requirements.  The team coaches are Karim Virani and Cathy Lux (married), and most weekends during the Fall FLL season will include at least 1 4 hour practice at their home.  They are also loaning the club most of the needed robotics equipment.  Additional equipment has been generously purchased by the Travis PTA, and loaned by Big Thought.

Here's a quick list of resources:

Basic Mindstorms information:
http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx

1. Parents - view these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHIsL4A4LRw
and about this year's missions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yff1KWAnYik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4JeaztjieQ&feature=related

2.  Students - view this video:
http://www.youtube.com/user/FLLGlobal#p/c/562FE18E2DA15B52/1/u7NNu9g2edc

3.  You may wish to visit the follow sites for more information:
http://www.perotmuseum.org/events-and-programs/school-programs/first-lego-league/index.html
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/fll


4.  Parents & Students, discuss whether you can commit to the extra days needed to join the team.  In order to stay on the team, you must attend at least 75% of weekend practices. Sessions will be held most weekends through the end of the calendar year, on either Saturday or Sunday..Also you must be available for the Tuesday after school robotics club as a mentor (tutoring or school commitments are excused absences.)

5.  If you'd like to participate, we need a consent form signed by the parent/guardian and returned to the instructor.
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/fll/stuff-to-bring-to-an-event
(Check FLL as the Program and the Team Number is 9169)