UL Youth Robotics Teams, Ages 9-14, Take 1st in 2014 FLL Louisiana Championship

Team Phoenix, a youth robotics team, has been training since September at the  Center for Innovative Learning and Assessment Technologies (CILAT), College of Education, at the University of Louisiana.

The team received 1st place in the Champion award. The Champion award, the most prestigious award, is given to the team that embodies the spirit of FLL and is exceptional in all judging areas (core values, robot game performance, research project).

The boys competed with great character and passion despite several technical setbacks. They truly embodied the core values of FIRST and First Lego League.

The team has been invited to compete at the national level in May 2015.

FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is an alliance between FIRST and the LEGO® Group. It’s a robotics program (for students ages 9 to 14) that is designed to get children excited about science and technology.  Teams program an autonomous robot to score points on a thematic playing surface, create an innovative solution to a problem and present their innovation to a panel of judges (professionals in various fields such as engineering, computer science, etc.).  FLL combines the engineering challenge of a robotics competition with real-world problem solving and inventing.  FLL team members learn science and technology skills at the same time as valuable employment and life skills.  Participants also learn that friendly competition and mutual gain are not separate goals, and that helping one another is the foundation of teamwork.

This year, over 200,000 children ages 9-16 (in the US children ages 9-14 compete) from over 55 countries are participating.  Louisiana had approximately 100 teams that participated in regional qualifier tournaments.  Sixty teams competed in the Louisiana Championship Tournament held on December 6th, 2014 in New Orleans.