Inventioneers On The Road

The USA Science and Engineering Festival

2010-10-30T15:24:00.010-04:00

We had a great time at our exhibit at the first ever USA Science and Engineering Festival on the National Mall in Washington DC on October 23 and 24! We were fortunate to be part of FIRST's booth promoting FIRST programs. The crowds were amazing. In line with our goal of getting more kids involved with science and engineering programs, we talked to everyone - parents and kids - about the advantages of a science program like FLL, we demonstrated our robot and our SMARTwheel as examples of how far kids can go in engineering, and taught people how to program robots. We estimate over 20,000 people came by our booth in two days!

Just look at the crowds!

Here we are with our friends from FIRST!

On the Road on a Patent Search!

2010-10-12T13:12:00.004-04:00

As part of our patent-oriented trip to Washington, DC, we visited Thomas Edison's Research Laboratory in West Orange, NJ on the way back. It is a National Park which had been closed for years but reopened about a year ago. It is awesome and right now you get to use an audio player which gives you a great tour with interesting background information about the whole exhibit for free. Kids under 16 are free and adults are only $7.

Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents and many of his inventions are on display. Park rangers give great tours of different buildings and can answer any question inquiring minds (like ours) want to know! Check out our slideshow for an inside look!

The Inventioneers Go to Washington!

2010-09-19T11:15:00.003-04:00

We are taking our innovative ABCs of FLL Workshop for new teams "On The Road" to Washington, DC on Saturday, September 25th! We were invited by DC FIRST to bring this successful seminar to rookie teams to share our insider tips for a successful first season. The seminar includes hands-on activities for teams, research, technical and teamwork sessions as well as a Coaching 101 session for mentors and coaches. We'll share tips for judging sessions, what to expect at tournaments, and we'll answer questions on any FLL topic. We're expecting close to 150 participants!

Check back on this blog to learn more and to follow our trip down to our nation's capital!

YMCA National Capital, Washington, DC

Our FREE Workshop - We're Traveling to Manchester, NH

2010-07-29T15:58:00.004-04:00

Check out our other blog The Inventioneers Connection to get the details about the ABCs of FLL -our free workshop for rookie coaches and team members!

Upcoming Events

2010-07-10T15:38:00.000-04:00

Department of Safety Conference, August 2010, Portsmouth NH

BAE training session

2010-06-10T09:38:00.002-04:00

On May 22, we traveled "on the road" to FIRST Place in Manchester, NH where we demonstrate our Smart Move robot and gave a presentation at the BAE rookie coach training session. We talked about tournament strategy, robot game insider tips, and gave lots of other helpful tips to use throughout the season to people who were looking to start and coach a FLL team.

We were so happy to help out at the workshop and give the rookie coaches our best advice after 6 years, 16 tournaments, and 16 trophies (9 of those Champion's Awards)!

Check out our video slideshow from the event below:

NH Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Banquet

2010-05-14T22:17:00.007-04:00

Our latest venture "on the road" brought us to Manchester, NH for the NH Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Banquet held at the Radisson Hotel. After our win in Atlanta, Mr. Fred Kocher, President of the New Hampshire High Technology Council (NHHTC) graciously invited us to the event and on May 10, where we showcased our patent-pending SMARTwheel invention and demonstrated our awesome Smart Move robot. We spoke with hundreds of NH's top high tech business owners and entrepreneurs who were interested in our Don't DUIT campaign and our SMARTwheel. Our state's governor, John Lynch spent a lot of time with us and even gave our SMARTwheel prototype a try! We are looking forward to appearances on our local ABC affiliate station, WMUR and working with many of the business professionals we met that night.

The highlight of the evening was the amazing introduction from the Chairman of the NHHTC, Mr. Matt Pierson, who said:

"In the 2008 season, the Boston Celtics beat out 28 teams to be the NBA Champions. In 2001-2005, the Patriots . . . beat out a total of 31 teams to win the Superbowl three times in that time span. Well, those accomplishments pale in comparison to the Inventioneers, the FIRST LEGO League team that recently beat out 15,000 teams to become the World Champions and I'd like to acknowledge them."

Which brought a standing ovation from the entire audience! A career highlight for the Inventioneers!

On the Road at the NH Traffic Safety Conference

2010-05-12T16:02:00.007-04:00

We recently went "on the road" to Meredith, NH for the statewide NH Traffic Safety Conference. We were invited to be guest speakers and we set up an exhibit to demonstrate our SMARTwheel prototype and spread the Don't DUIT message. Additionally, we promoted FIRST and FLL to over 160 people! The most exciting part of the day was when we received a standing ovation in our workshop session! We now have several new partners in our fight against texting and driving.

We encourage teams to find ways to reach out in their communities and support FIRST through those efforts!

2010-05-04T13:35:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone,

We are posting a link to a radio interview we did on April 18th for our local radio station LEO 103. Check it out:

Our Don't DUIT Message

2010-05-01T13:06:00.000-04:00

One of the big things we've been working on as part of our research project this year is spreading the word about our Don't DUIT (DUIT stands for Driving Under the Influence of Texting) campaign. As most FLL teams know, when you can put your heart and soul into your project, it never seems like work. That's the way it's been for us this year and we were able to exceed our goals!

We started working on this video public service announcement in December with an idea and a storyboard and finished it early in March after a TV studio taping and two editing sessions. Now it's being shown at conferences and on local television stations!

Take the Pledge:

Don't DUIT

Free Offer

2010-04-29T20:48:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone,

The Where's Buddy blog has a great offer for a cool design. Check it out at Where's Buddy?

High 5 Award Goes to Monkey Madness

2010-04-24T10:11:00.004-04:00

It was Friday, April 16th and we just had our first round on the table and we got a perfect 400! However right before our round was one of the most stressful times during the whole competition. We had transferred the robot from its travel bin into the bin we carted it around in at the Georgia Dome this morning. But we forgot to transfer the piece that is essential to deliver the people. Without this it would be impossible to get a perfect score. We asked the team behind us if they had brought any spare parts (of course no one brings parts to the competition table!) and they said they hadn't. Then they asked us what piece we needed. A few seconds later, they were offering us a piece of their robot! Wow, that was amazing, they actually took apart their robot to give us the piece we needed. Not only did we get a perfect score, but so did the awesome team that helped us - Monkey Madness, Team 237 from Alabama! We nominated them for the Gracious Professionalism Award and in our six years of FLL competition, no team has deserved it more!

Thank You Monkey Madness!

We Are the Champions!

2010-04-17T21:33:00.002-04:00

What an unbelievable day! Our team has always dreamed of winning the FLL World Festival Champion's Award and today we did! We had fun cheering on all the award winners throughout the ceremony and then there was only one award left - the big one. We hadn't had our name or number called and we were all holding our breath. Then, they said, "this is a team that has a module and chassis system for their robot, scored 400 on the competition table, and is "inventioneering" with MIT. The Champion's Award goes to Team 3013, The Inventioneers."

We jumped up screaming and crying and ran up on stage. It took a while to sink in, everyone was congratulating us and we were hugging each other! We feel so honored because we know there were many good teams competing and to be chosen from such an awesome group is amazing!

Good Eats!

2010-04-17T21:15:00.002-04:00

We found a great restaurant in Atlanta that we really enjoyed! It's called the Marietta Diner and we had some great meals there! The portions were huge and the food was yummy (and no, we don't have any endorsement deals here). So if you're in the Atlanta area, check it out! We wish we had a picture of the dessert case to show you - you've never seen anything like it!

FFLL - FUN FIRST LEGO League

2010-04-16T21:25:00.002-04:00

One of the things that we think helps build our teamwork is that we really do try to have fun whenever we're together. All this week in Atlanta, you'll find us singing songs we've made up about how much we love FLL, playing hand games, and playing catch or tag. After all, if you forget the FUN, you have left out the most important FLL Core Value! You can try these things with your team, use any "down time" in team meetings or field trips to joke around or play games. We wouldn't do it any other way!

Playing a hand game while waiting for a judging session

2010-04-16T14:35:00.000-04:00

Well, the call-backs were numerous. The official call-back was back in the judging area with about 15 judges in the "room" with us. They asked some challenging questions and wanted to know more about our project and our teamwork accomplishments. Then, judges came by our pit individually and asked us even more questions. Boy, were we busy! In the meantime, the robot has been awesome on the official table rounds!

Call-backs in the pit:

Here are the standings after two rounds!

Call-Backs are Your Friends!

2010-04-15T22:29:00.000-04:00

BTW -

At the International and National tournaments, the judging sessions can be extended - these are referred to as "call-backs". If the judges want to review the top teams or just talk further to a team, they put them on the "call-back" list. We were ecstatic when, at the end of the Opening Ceremonies, they announced Team 3013 was on the list! That means more meetings with the judges tomorrow!

2010-04-15T22:01:00.000-04:00

It sounds strange but "Opening Ceremonies" for the 2010 FLL World Festival were tonight, after the judging session day! Dean Kamen spoke to all the teams that attended and got everyone revved up for the rest of the events. Some teams got up in front of the crowd and performed dances and music. The judges put on a skit and the refs called Mr. Scott Evans up to show us some cool Rubic's Cube moves. Jaiden event "helped"!

Mr. Kamen speaks to the teams

The judges entertained us

Mr. Evans and the refs-Jaiden is on the right

in the safety green Inventioneers' shirt

2010-04-15T17:42:00.002-04:00

On the first day of competition (Thursday), each team has two practice rounds and all of their initial judging sessions. Unlike the local and state tournaments in NH, the judging sessions happen one right after the other. You start with research, then go right to technical, and finally right into teamwork. The other difference is that you have 15 minutes with the judges, not 10 like at locals/states.

The "rooms" are just curtained off areas in a huge hall (think warehouse), so it is really loud. The pit area is in the same hall, just on the other side of the curtains and there are seven teams being judged in seven side-by-side judging spaces. One team had some long 'tuned' tubes that they beat and banged together in different rhythms. Ordinarily that was interesting, but they went full volume while we were having our research judging. We are convinced the judges could read lips!

All the judges were really nice and encouraging. Then we had two practice rounds on the table. The robot worked great but we had some 'human player' snags. Still, 390 was not a bad score.

Waiting outside the judging rooms

Careful! Objects are Sharper Than They Appear!

2010-04-14T21:01:00.000-04:00

Here's a picture of TJ seeing how sharp the Washington Monument is! Thankfully he wasn't seriously injured by the monument as we needed him for the World Festival competition!

It's the Pits!

2010-04-14T21:00:00.001-04:00

[Due to a problem with Blogger, we weren't able to publish this post the day we wrote it.]

Hi Everyone!

It's Wednesday and we were able to get into the Georgia World Congress Center to set up our pit area. Each team gets a 10x10x10 foot space to set up displays about their team, their country/state, and their project. Here are some pictures of our pit:

We like to have a curtained-off area in the back of our pit to keep things like our extra LEGO pieces and our robot cart. (It's also a good place to hide out while we nominate our coach for the Adult Mentor of the Year award!)

2010-04-14T20:59:00.002-04:00

Here are some of the other teams' pits at the World Festival!

We're Here!

2010-04-14T08:14:00.004-04:00

We spent all day yesterday driving down. We stopped at Crowders State Park in North Carolina for lunch, then we took a stroll by the park's lake. Then we drove the remaining 3 hours to our hotel. We had decided to stay at the Country Inn & Suites in Smyrna, GA and when we got to our room in was HUGE which is great because we brought a lot of stuff. The pool is great as well. It is soooo warm, and it's big too. It felt so good to unwind after our long drive.

Day in Review

2010-04-12T20:44:00.001-04:00

Today we got to Washington D.C. at 10:30 am and parked at Union Station. We walked to the U.S. Botanical Gardens where we spent our day (until 3:00 pm). At the Gardens we saw flowering banana trees in the conservatory. Did you know the banana tree is made up of leaves that haven't opened yet? Or that the flower grows up inside the tree then sprawls over the top and hangs down the outside?

We also saw a cacao tree (the source of cocoa and all things chocolate!) that was fruiting:

We also looked at their collection of over 2,000 orchids, plus their menagerie of desert plants - some were HUGE.

After that we drove to the Jefferson Memorial where we ate a picnic lunch. Then we drove all the way down to South Hill, VA (which is on the Virginia-North Carolina border where we are spending the night. We then ate dinner at Brian's Steakhouse a local restaurant a few blocks away from the hotel.

Tomorrow we have a long drive of 7 hours to make it to Atlanta.

Almost Half Way There

2010-04-12T07:39:00.011-04:00

Yesterday we made it all the way to Laurel, Maryland. On the way to MD, we stopped at Hammonasset State Park in Madison, CT for a picnic lunch on the beach! Next we visited Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ, where we saw a great view of the Statue of Liberty from about 2,000 feet away! Then we drove along I-95 all the way to Laurel. Today we are sightseeing Washington D.C. then we will hit the road and drive to South Carolina (we hope). That's about two hours outside of Atlanta.

That's just half of our team. The other half checked out Charleston, SC with Buddy and will be uploading some photos soon!

Our Adventure Center Is Now Released!

2010-04-10T14:06:00.000-04:00

Our Adventure Center is now available for you to virtually come on our adventure with us. See the sights, and the action. Have fun!

Click Here To Get Started

Buddy is Off on HIs Adventure!

2010-04-10T06:15:00.001-04:00

Half of our team left NH last night to start their journey to Atlanta. Buddy decided to go with them! He is leaving the state for the first time, stopping in Connecticut first.

Getting Near the End

2010-04-09T21:08:00.005-04:00

Last night we arranged what we call a "mock" judging session. We asked engineers and other technical professionals we know to take us through a technical judging session. They asked us tough questions and we did our best to answer them all. Even though we knew our "judges", we were still a little nervous because we knew they would be tough on us. This is great practice for any tournament and any team. Just setting the goal of wanting to be prepared for people outside your team is a great way for you to "kick it up a notch".

Exploding the Code

2010-04-09T20:08:00.001-04:00

We finally got to the code review. We make it our goal to do this before all tournaments. We go over all of our programs as a group to keep the logic fresh in our minds. Sometimes we even find an error or two! We also get to ask each other about why someone programmed the mission the way they did, just to fully understand the code programmed by each team member. If your team has never done a code review - try it. You'll be surprised how much of your reasoning can get hazy if you don't review programming you might have done months ago.

Where's Buddy?

2010-04-09T12:22:00.013-04:00

Meet our mascot!

BUDDY

You can see him here on the blog and he is going with us to Atlanta G.A. See him this week as he visits different places throughout the trip!

Take Our Trip With Us - Virtually

2010-04-08T15:35:00.000-04:00

Once we leave for Atlanta we want you to experience our trip with us. So we are creating the Inventioneers' Adventure Center which we will be updating every day to show you the sights we have seen and experience our adventures, virtually taking the trip with us. The Inventioneers' Adventure Center will be released on 4-10-10. So stay Tuned and we hope you have fun!

Almost Ready To Go

2010-04-08T12:07:00.000-04:00

Packing has begun!

Hooray!

Final 2 Days

2010-04-08T08:06:00.003-04:00

Last night we worked on our research presentation and we did a teamwork activity. We didn't get to the code review so we will do that today.

Buttons Galore

2010-04-07T15:55:00.006-04:00

We just took a count of all the buttons we have made, here are the results:
470 Don't DUIT Buttons,
100 Inventioneers Buttons.

Here are our goals:
500 Don't DUIT Buttons,
200 Inventioneers Buttons.

Almost There!

T - 3 Days And Counting - Part 4

2010-04-07T15:44:00.001-04:00

Now that we are happy about our robot's performance, it's time to have a code review to get rid of unneeded icons and illogical code.

Testing the Robot

2010-04-07T15:39:00.005-04:00

Today our team tested our robot on two different Smart Move FLL tables. We found some problems, fixed them, and tested it again. Then, our robot worked really well!

If your team ever gets the chance to run your robot on a different table DO IT because it's a great opportunity to see how your robot acts somewhere other than your team's table - because every table, mat, and elements are a little different.

We have only 3 more days till we leave for Atlanta, GA!

T - 3 Days And Counting - Part 3

2010-04-07T14:05:00.004-04:00

At this afternoon's meeting we hope to finish all of the our visual aids, materials, and boards to get that out of the way. Tonight we will focus on practicing our research presentation.

T - 3 Days And Counting - Part 2

2010-04-07T08:14:00.002-04:00

We have just calculated that we have less than 50 hours before we leave. The adrenalin is really starting to pump!

T - 3 Days And Counting

2010-04-07T07:09:00.002-04:00

Last night we made great progress on getting our materials and visual aids updated. Also, by the end of the night we finished making the robot work consistently now we just have to run it over and over and over again. It is starting to sink in:

2 DAYS TO GO!

Progress Report

2010-04-06T21:30:00.001-04:00

We're working on getting all of our robot programs ready to be printed. We just need to get it into one place, then print! (we made it one of our goals this year to get our programs printed before we leave)

4 Days to Go

2010-04-06T17:31:00.012-04:00

Today we have been testing our robot. We met today to work out the remaining small adjustments in our robot's programming.

Later we will probably work on practicing our research presentation and running the robot.

Our Invention Is Ready For Atlanta!

2010-04-06T07:01:00.001-04:00

Last night we perfected our SMARTwheel prototype. We also soldered connections to make them more robust for the trip. And we were very excited when it worked once we put it back together again!

5 Days Before We Leave!

2010-04-05T21:54:00.005-04:00

Well, we had 29 things on our To Do list just for today. A good thing to do when you have more to accomplish than you have team time for, is to start checking to see what can be done as homework. We were able to cut our To Do list in half by using this strategy. Of course, the team is counting on each person to get the homework done so make sure your team sees how important homework tasks are! We divided all the things we have left to do between the days we have left. That way we spread out the workload. Tomorrow's list only has 23 things on it!

The Inventioneers

Ten Days and Counting!

2010-04-04T11:04:00.000-04:00

We're counting down to the World Festival which officially starts on April 14th and ends on April 17 with the final awards!