TransformersRobotics

US Open Day 2

                                    

                                                            View from overhead

The teams are split into two groups.  While one group practiced their robot runs, the other group went to judging.  Then they swapped after lunch.  We had our judging sessions in the afternoon.  Each team was assigned a helper who led them from session to session (one after the other).  This worked really well.  Here is the team while they wait for their project judging.

                                    

                                        

As always, there is a lot of team spirit at the event.  Here is one of our coaches decked out in our team colors.  One of the teams (ZBots) were handing out LEGO earrings and she snagged a pair to match her outfit.

                                   

Introducing Mall-E.  She rolled around, making friends.  We complimented her on her skirt.  Nice look!

We ended the day with a "Taste of Italy" dinner and an Engineering Extravaganza.  Now it's time to rest up for the big day tomorrow.

                                     

 

FLL US Open, Day 1

Today was the first day of the US Open.  We set up our pit, ate dinner, then toured the National Museum of the United States Air Force.  We'll try to post some photos tomorrow.  Tomorrow will be the practice rounds and the research, technical, and teamwork judging.  More tomorrow night...

Climate Connections research

We have seen many interesting research projects at FLL competitions and we'd like to share ours with you here.

New friends from East Side Elementary Robotics Club

Earlier this week we visited with two FLL teams from the East Side Elementary Robotics Club.  They invited our team to share our research and technical presentations and to run the robot.  The teams enjoyed sharing with each other and learning about the others' experiences.  It was so nice of teams Lego Challengebots and Dynamite to invite us to meet with them!  Thank you!  We look forward to a possible scrimmage next year.

From Coach KnitBot:  I really enjoyed talking with the coaches from East Side.  And I was very impressed by the East Side Elementary Robotics Club.  They did very well at competitions this year, had a great technical notebook, and their robot ran very well!

                                      

World Festival field trip

                                 

Today we took a trip down to the World Festival to see the robot runs, the team pit areas, and to support the Georgia FLL team, the Yottabytes.  World Festival is such a fun experience and it was great to be there.  But, we were really tired when we got home!

 

Law firm presentation

Last year we presented our research to a local law firm.  We were invited back this year and were happy to have the chance to meet with them again.     

                                   

Thank you for your support and for letting us share our research and robotics with you!

Sharing FLL

FIRST LEGO League encourages teams to let other people know about the organization, the team's research, and robotics.  On Monday, we had an opportunity to share these things with a group of middle school students.

elegotricguitargirl says:

We went to elegotricguitargirl's science class at Bristol Oaks.  We had a lot of fun running all the new, crazy programs.  We even made a flag attached to the robot with the Bristol Oaks logo.  When we were done all the students asked a lot of questions and some of them even wanted to join a team.  We left a huge impression.

                                     

Georgia FTC Championship Tournament

On Saturday, February 21, the Georgia FTC Championship Tournament was held in Marietta.  The event is described by team member IB Clank:

Coach Beth, Coach Steve, and I volunteered at the Georgia FIRST Tech Challenge at Southern Poly Tech on Saturday.  It was very interesting.  The competition between robots was cool.  It seemed really hard to program them to complete the challenge.  Each alliance of two teams tried to score points by putting street hockey pucks into a center scoring area on a 12X12 field.  They also try to stop the other alliance from scoring.  My job was Field Reset/Repair after each round.  I reset the hockey pucks in their racks, and I repaired the field if needed.  It was a fun day!

Here's a look at FTC...

                     

GE Engineers Week

The Transformers were invited to participate with GE in observing National Engineers Week.  We ran our robot with five other FLL teams, showed a PowerPoint presentation of our research, and let the engineers try out our robot.  We took an interesting tour of their Monitoring and Diagnostic Center.

Team member Fish Sticks says:

It was very fun and we had a good time.  It was so funny when our coach forgot our manipulators.  The tour was fun and we learned a lot.

Yes, the coach forgot the manipulators and had to return home to get them!  But that didn't prevent everyone from having fun.

                      

Georgia State Finals

                                         

Wow, what an incredible day!  The state tournament was so much fun and there was lots of excitement.  It was great to see all the teams exhibit their gracious professionalism and team spirit.  And of course there were some great robot runs and terrific research!

The Transformers were so excited to do well at the competition.  We won the second place Champion's Award and were invited to represent Georgia at the FLL U.S. Open Championship which takes place in Dayton, Ohio from May 7-9.  This is such an honor and we are happy to have been selected.

Congratulations to the Yottabytes who won first place and will represent Georgia at the World Festival in April!  They did a great job.  Have fun at the World Festival!

And congratulations to the Gear Geeks for their hard work and solid robot runs.  They won the third place Champion's Award and third place in Robot Performance.  The Gear Geeks, along with their coaches and mentors, are such a friendly and helpful team and they have encouraged us since we've known them.

Congratulations to all the teams that participated in Georgia this year!  And thank you to Jeff Rosen and everyone else who made this competition and season such a success!