The Alternative Press

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.

Jr.FLL is a global robotics program for children ages 6 - 9 from FIRST, the organizer of world-renowned robotics competitions for K-12 students. This Jr.FLL Expo was one of more than forty Expos hosted by local organizations throughout the U.S., Canada, and the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg).

Local Student Volunteers

The Expo was to cerebrate the end of the "Smart Move" season and to encourage new participants for the next season, "Body Forward" about Biomedical Engineering, which will start in September 2010. The Expo drew many participants and spectators from Bergen, Essex, and Union counties.

In the morning, volunteers helped set up and prepare for the event. The event was organized by two FIRST LEGO League teams (for ages 9 - 14) and one Jr.FLL team (for age 6 to 9) from Livingston Robotics Club.

Team Landroids set up the FLL field table to demonstrate their robot which is the only one in the world that can climb on the bridge during the World Festival international competition.

Landroids also displayed the 1st place 8th grade Regional eCYBERMISSION Award winning Deer Avoidance research project and their latest Moonbots challenge robot to many spectators. Regional Champion's Award winner Team Landrias helped set up Imagine Mars exhibition, which 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. Landrias also displayed their "Got Bikes" project, and different NXT robots for children to play with.

Spongebot, the first Jr.FLL team in Livingston, also helped in the Imagine Mars exhibition. Both FLL teams volunteered to be the judges for Jr.FLL team presentation.

The New York City Inspire Award winner, Lancer Robotics from Livingston High School, also participated in the Expo by having a demonstration of their robot. The team attracted children to catch plastic balls shot by their robot.

Live Webinar with NASA

One of the highlights in the Expo was the live Webinar with an engineer from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Ravi Prakash, who is working on the landing system of the next Mars rover, presented the design of the landing system for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers which are currently on Mars, and the new design for the Curiosity rover to be launched in 2011. Prakash threw in a bonus by showing a rarely-seen live feed of the test rover that engineers have been using to test different ways to free the Spirit rover which is currently stuck on the Martian surface. Another rarely-seen live feed shown was the test model of the Curiosity rover that is used by engineers to perform testing to make sure that the electronics work and that many of the different parts of the rover move correctly. Many children and adults were engaged in the video conference. Some children had a chance to ask many questions related to Mars and space exploration.

The Livingston Robotics Club's Imagine Mars project also presented children with 3D images from Mars rovers, sample of Mars soil stimulant, the generated sound of the Spirit rover during its mission on Mars, and a model of the Curiosity rover on a simulated surface of Mars built by Team Landrias. Children created their artwork to design a transportation system of a futuristic community on Mars.

Jr.FLL Expo Judging

After the Webinar, the Jr.FLL participants went back to their assigned table to make a final touch on their presentation and LEGO models. The children have been working in teams (of maximum 6 members) to investigate how things are moved from one place to another. Two neighborhood teams from Livingston/East Hanover area, two teams from students who took Kidz Klub after-school class at Harrison Elementary school in the winter, and a team from Cedar Grove area presented their projects to the judges. Each team came up with their own choice of one specific object that they want to investigate regarding how it is moved and they built LEGO models to demonstrate their findings. The teams presented how to move people and various things from pickles to cats to race car engines to an entire city. Many teams used LEGO robotics and wrote robotics programs for their models.

College Teams

The visitors also enjoyed special presentations from two college teams. Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering (PAVE) from Princeton University brought their driverless car, "Prospect Twelve", to the Expo. Landrias visited PAVE garage at Princeton University two weeks earlier to formally invite them to the Expo. "Prospect Twelve" took part in DARPA Urban Challenge to build an autonomous vehicle capable of driving in traffic, performing complex maneuvers such as merging, passing, parking, and negotiating intersections. PAVE is currently improving their car to successfully pass the NJ State drivers' exam.

University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team (UWAFT) from Ontario, Canada presented a short video to young children to underscore the importance of finding alternative fuels for our cars. UWAFT is one of 16 college teams across the U.S. and Canada that participate in the EcoCar challenge to convert existing cars into alternative-fuel cars. UWAFT presented their design of Fuel Cell / Plug-in Hybrid car and an inspirational video to encourage children to have interest in science and engineering.

Award Ceremony

The Jr.FLL Expo was concluded with the award ceremony. Each team was cited by the judges on the strength of the team and an official Jr.FLL medal was given each team member:

Award                                              Team# Team Name Location                     

Effort and Learning Award                 103      Spongebots Livingston

Robust Design Award                         1377    Pickle          Livingston

Programming Award                          1436    LEGO Botics Livingston       

Team Spirit Award                              1428    Pantheon     Cedar Grove

Complexity and Decoration Award    1375    City on Wheels Livingston

 

All Jr.FLL participants will also collaborate to create a greeting card to be sent to NASA's JPL Mars Mission team. After the ceremony, there was an informal question and answer session for parents who are interested in creating new teams for the next season.

After the conclusion of Jr.FLL Expo, Livingston Robotics Club teams Landroids and Landrias joined Livingston Police in the Bike Rodeo with activities, safety checks and bike registration to promote the health benefits associated with safe cycling.

Ravi Prakash, NASA's JPL Engineer who was the host of the Live Webinar told The Alternative Press, "I was very excited to see such an enthusiastic and youthful audience very engaged in a conversation about space and asking many thoughtful questions. It is clear that these kids have a drive for learning that should continue to be nurtured through programs like FIRST robotics and other similar opportunities."

Bonnie Spring, the coach of LEGO Botics said, "Our Jr. FIRST LEGO League Robotics team had a blast learning the timeline of how a car engine is made! We had six children on our team consisting of 1st and 2nd graders from Livingston and East Hanover."  She continued, "Students met once a week for our "Research & Building Sessions" during which time we did teamwork activities, research, and of course, built the lego robots. Overall, the experience was tremendous for these eager-young minds. The children looked forward to getting together every week; they made new friends, learned new life-skills such as teamwork and compromise, learned how to focus on a topic and do research, and how to do basic computer programming. I loved being the coach for our team; thanks Legos for bringing this creative building toy to a new level!"

She added, "Having the exhibition at the Livingston Oval during Youth Appreciation Week was a great way to culminate our project. My team was excited to see what other teams designed and were impressed at what the more advanced levels were able to produce. The additional scientific information for the children about Mars also peaked their interest. Having the FIRST LEGO Robotics teams proudly display their work to so many people in town during such a fun event at the Oval teaches the children that participating in mind stimulating-clubs is also a great way to have a good time!"

For more information on future Expos, visit the official LRC Jr.FLL Expo site at http://www.LivingstonRobotics.org/expo