Our Journey
Our season so far has been a rollercoaster ride as we will explain on this page. We are competing in a competition called FIRST Lego League. FIRST Lego League is a global science and technology competition with over 250,000 young people taking part each year. The competition includes two key challenges: to design, build and program a robot capable of performing a range of complex tasks, and to research, invent and present an innovative product, which addresses a problem in a given theme-this year's NATURE'S FURY. Throughout the competition we are also judged on our teamwork and gracious professionalism towards other teams and judges.
Regional Competition
The Regonal competition that we attended was at the University of Kent. It was a one day competition which was held on the 4th of December 2013. Over 20 teams entered with their robots and project ideas. We managed to win the overall event and also the robot performance award. We were very happy because it meant a visit to the UK National Finals in Loughborough on the 1st Feburary 2014. Below is a video of the regionals.
National Competition
The FLL UK finals were held on the 1st Febuary 2014. 31 teams had qualified for the big National competition all with the intention of coming home with the winners trophy and the 'UK Champions' Title. For us the competition began the day before, as we trecked up to Loughborough where we stayed at a Premier Inn for the night.
The beginning of the competion was a bit shaky for us with the project not going exactly to plan and a low robot score of 85. However we turned this around with a tremendous score of 514 in round 2 showing the teams our potential. We later scored 542 in a knock-out round.
As the day came to an end, the award ceremony begun. We received the robot performance award for our high scores. However, we were not finnished there with awards; we managed to come away with the UK Champions Award. We were totally surprised and shocked as we had qualified for the World Festival in St. Louis, America, later this year.
Receiving our Kent and Medway Champions Trophy
Going throught the robot score with the referee
ITV Meridian report of the great day at the University
Receiving our UK Champions Trophy
Talking about our Core Values to the Judges
Setting up the robot for a 542 Point Round
World Festival
As UK Champions we have been given an invitation to the World Festival which will be held in St. Louis, Missouri, America on 23-26 April 2014. We are going to try really hard to raise the money to get there, as it will be an amazing experience meeting and learning from teams from all around the world.
Crest Awards
For our achievements in america we we were all awarded a Gold crest awards. This is a valuable award which is equievalent to an A-level.
Number 10
On the 11th June we were invited to represent the IET at a special reception in 10 downing street, celebrating the success of the UK’s leading entrepreneurial and technology communities. The reception was held in the Garden of 10 Downing Street and besides meeting and speaking to the PM of the UK, we also had the wonderful opportunity to speak to the head of Google UK, David Willetts MP, and a host of other very important players in the UK technology industries; mainly the chiefs of the top companies in the UK were present.
