Middle School Robotics Team Competes at South Jersey FLL Qualifier

The Middle School Robotics team traveled to Camden County Technical High School on January 13 to compete in one of three South Jersey FLL Qualifiers. There were 20 teams at this event and the top six teams moved on to the regional. 

First Lego League Robotics teams are judged in four areas to compile an overall score: Core Values, Innovation Project, Robot Design, and the Robot Game. Students demonstrate gracious professionalism at the event while they interact with other teams and judges. In the morning our team went to their formal judging session to present their robot design and their Innovation Project. The project prompt this year was “How can you use technology and the arts to help others get interested in hobbies and activities you like?” Our students thought up a way to combine Generative AI and Holograms to make our weekly assemblies more engaging. 

Our students came out of their judging session elated and proud. (Coaches are not allowed in the judging session, FYI.) They were very pleased with their presentation. Matthew Diaz ’28, Fareed Shah ’28, and Connor Hehn ’28 led the way for the Innovation Project. Nikko Febus ’29 and the rest of the team members were there to answer judge questions about the project.

In the afternoon of competition day, all eyes are on the Robot Game tables. Teams get three 2.5-minute runs with their robots on the game map. Students spent the semester programming their robot to complete missions on the map for points. The highest score out of the three runs is the one that counts. Stefan Grimmelikhuijsen ’28, David Will ’28, Caleb Rosmarin ’30, and Kerry O’Connor ’30 did excellent work at the competition table and bested our score from last year. Between rounds, Kerry O’Connor, Caleb Rosmarin, and Olivia Ross ’28 worked on the robot programming on the floor of the gym without a map to work out some kinks. Pretty impressive. 

Although we didn’t advance to the regional, our MS Robotics team improved greatly on their performance from last year and came away from the competition in high spirits. 

–Written by Advisor and Middle/Upper School Science Teacher Matt Lubicky