Team Landrias hosted a FIRST LEGO League exhibition as a community outreach effort on Saturday October 23, 2010 at the NJ RoboFest at Clifton High School as part of the NJ Science and Engineering Festival. We exhibited our “Body Forward” research findings and product design to help asthma patients to live a better life. We also demonstrated the robot design and NXT-G programs to complete some of the “Body Forward” robot missions related to the theme of Biomedical Engineering.

During the exhibition, our team members explained what FLL is all about to the many children and parents who visited our booth, generated lots of interests in FLL and inquires on how to participate or start a team. With approximately 4,000 visitors came by on that day, we polished our public speaking skills, demonstrated our enthusiam about science and technology, and served as an FLL ambassador to the general public. It was a long day, but hopefully, this wonderful community outreach opportunity planted new seeds in some of the curious children and parents and promoted the visions of the FIRST.

Livingston Robotics Club hosted the Junior FIRST LEGO League (Jr.FLL) Expo on May 29, 2010 during the Youth Appreciation Week in Livingston, New Jersey. In addition, Livingston teams from the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) and FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), along with college robotics and engineering programs and a NASA Engineer, joined the exhibition.

The Expo was to cerebrate the end of the “Smart Move” season and to encourage new participants for the upcoming “Body Forward” season

Prior to the exhibition day, Landrias worked on the preparing the “Imagine Mars” exhibition by building a model of the Curiosity rover on a simulated surface of Mars.

Imagine Mars is a project sponsored by NASA and the National Endowment for the Arts to encourage students to learn more about the Mars exploration and use their creativity to express their ideas through works of art. We set it up in the morning, to present children with 3D images from Mars rovers, sample of Mars soil stimulant, the generated sound of the Spirit rover during its mission on Mars.  Children created their artwork to design a transportation system of a futuristic community on Mars, and we hung them up for all to see.  Our team also displayed our Smart Move “Got Bikes” project, and we brought in different NXT robots for visitors to play with.

In the afternoon, we became the Jr. FLL judges.  We listened to five different teams’ presentation, had our deliberation with team Landroids, and be the presenters of the awards.  It was fun listening to the youngsters.

After the Expo, our team helped out the Livingston town police at the Bike Expo.  The police set up multiple stations to check for bike safety, helmet fitting, and bike safety.  This is in line with our “Got Bike” project, which we have been presenting to the town council and many town officials.  It is nice to see that bike safety awareness is growing in our town and that is the goal of our FLL research project.

See the official LRC Jr.FLL Expo site.

On May 15^th, Landrias participated in NJ FIRST LEGO League (FLL) outreach activity at Monty Madness to inspire young children to take part in the next FLL season, “Body Forward”.  Landrias presented their “Smart Move” Got Bike project boards, and had several friendly robot rounds with Landroids and Atoms Family. The challenge was if we ever beat our big brother team Landroids, the boys were to wear the signature Landrias flowers on their heads.  So far, we are still trying….  See our robot round video with the Landroids.

Landrias also stopped by at Princeton University to meet Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering (PAVE) team to invite them to the Junior FIRST LEGO League (Jr.FLL) Expo organized by Livingston Robotics Club which will be held on May 29^th. Roland Hwang who heads up event logistic for PAVE gave us a tour of their garage. We saw two of their Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) robots and got a chance to get in their latest driverless car, Prospect Twelve. PAVE plans to adjust the Prospect Twelve to be able to pass the same standard as in New Jersey driver license test. PAVE confirmed with our team that they will bring Prospect Twelve to the Jr.FLL Expo. This will be one of the activities in the Expo which Landrias has helped organizing and our team will be volunteering on the day of the event. The Expo is expected to inspire many children to be engaged in Jr.FLL and FLL in the “Body Forward” season.

Landrias received the Champion’s Award at the Montclair FLL qualifying event on 12/4/09, and will advance to the State tournament, which will be held at the Mt. Olive High School on 12/12/09.

Landrias with other Livingston Robotics Club teams, SciBoTechs and r2d2

The Friday evening Montclair tournament was held at a local church, where all 12 teams could easily mingle and see the robot performance without running back and forth between the pit area and the competition floor. The all-girls team Landrias #3724 did surprisingly well, and received the Champion’s Award for being first place in Robot Design, Research Project and Teamwork, as well as ranking #2 in Robot Performance with a top score of 355 out of 400.  The Landrias also received a special visit from Montclair Mayor, Jerry Fried, who  had previously met with the team and taught them many biking implementation strategies.

Landrias with Montclair Mayor Fried

Landrias presented their Smart Move projects along with the big brother team, Landroids, to the community as a part of the October 4, 2009 Livingston Eco Fair exhibition. At this town-wide event, the teams showcased their past and present research projects, demonstrated that the FIRST LEGO League is not just about building robots.

For weeks, Landrias has been working hard on our 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.  Our team worked on the weekends to gathered statistics, facts, field data, survey poll, and compiled preliminary solutions on the presentation boards. Base on visitors’ feedback and comments, we continue ouresearch effort and further discuss the findings with experts in the field.

Landrias presented their Smart Move project and conduct on-site survey to 80+ visitors.

As a NJ State 2nd place Robot Design winner for the FIRST LEGO League “Climate Connections” season, Landrias was one of the State winning teams participated at the 2009 Liberty Science Center FIRST LEGO League Exhibition on 2/16/09.  We presented our research project to hundreds of visitors, and had multiple aliance races with other FLL teams.  It was long but fun day.  After the exhibition, we all got a roam of the museum to check out other displays.

Landrias with Landroids, Say Watt?, Robot Rangers, and RoboInvaders