Blog is back up!!!!

I'm Back! Blogger dashboard has been down, so I finally figured out how to set up a new blog spot that would link to this one.

Big year so far for LYR.

Our annual Blue Thunder tournament was a huge success and received accolades from all teams that attended. Special thanks to Steve Mac and his crew for running the tables so smoothly. A huge thanks to Brendan, Tina, and Marie for organizing and overseeing all the judging and the competition schedules. You guys did a fantastic job!!!
Leominster teams continued to pile up the awards with several research awards and a couple Gracious Professionalism awards.
Congratulations to The Wild Horses, and to Cybernetics Without Borders for their golden ticket performances at Shrewsbury and Agawam. Both teams did fantastic at the State Championship Robonautica tournament at WPI. Cybernetics took home the State Research Award!!!!

Another special thanks to Tina and Marie for putting together the season finale tournament up at the World Headquarters, complete with blindfolds and parents looking like kids, running the robots. A lot of fun was had by all.

I'm already looking forward to next years Lego challenge!!!!

On to VEX!
With more time to prepare than ever before, the LYR VEX teams showed that practice makes perfect by sweeping the top 5 spots at the World qualifier this past month at Quinsigamond College. The top three team alliance consisting of the Mountain Lions, Geared Gators, and Devil Dolls were impressive as they swept their way through the playoffs and winning a heated battle against fellow Leominster teams in the Finals!
With this, the three teams have qualified to compete this April in Kissimee Florida at the World Championships!!!!!

Next up is the inaugural Leominster Youth Robotics VEX Invitational tournament to be held January 15th at the Tata Auditorium in City Hall. We have teams coming from Springfield, Quabbin, Connecticut, and Maine. This should be fun event and we are hoping to see a lot of the public at this tournament. It is free and open to the public, so spread the word and come on down!!!!

Blog is Back on Track. Gators going to Worlds

Well, I've been a little lax in my blogging duties. I'm back now, and boy do I have a lot to talk about.
In about 12 hours I will be headed to the airport with the 5 members of the Geared Gators and their parents to hop a plane to Dallas TX where we will be competing in the VEX Robotics World Championships!!!!!!!!!! The Gators are a team of two 5th graders and three 6th graders that finished up a very successful Lego season back in December. sometime in January they decided to give VEX a try, just to see how they would do against the high School teams.In one month and only 5 meetings, the team had a working bot and ventured off to Wentworth Institute of Technology to take on some very good HS teams. Not only did they prove they could hang with the big dogs, but they ended up being the captains of the 2nd place alliance and went on to take the highest honors of the tournament by winning the Directors Award of Excellence, which is presented to the best all around team of the tournament. this qualified them to go to Dallas to take on 420 teams from about 40 countries from around the globe.
Their goal for the big event..... don't come in last!
Just to add to the excitement, I have been selected to be the emcee for one of the competition arenas, and may get the chance to share the microphone with Mythbusters own Grant Imihara!!!!
The competition is running Thurs - Sat, the 22nd to 24th of April. It will be televised live on the NASA channel, and there will also be 5 separate live web casts. I will post the web cast links once I get them.
I have to go pack, but I'll blog from my blackberry to keep everyone in the loop.

Day 1 in the books. 108 matches 2 teams in the top20, Leominsters Alpha dogs winners of the Engineering award. Lots of excitement still to come

Well, we're on the bus headed to Maryland. Forecast calls for some major slop, but we'll forge through! Setup and inspection this afternoon and then sleep!

Webcast of upcoming VEX Championships

For the millions of followers of the Founders Blog and LYR, I wanted to pass along a website that will be webcasting the Mid Atlantic VEX Championships where 6 of the Leominster teams will be competing. www.midatlanticvex.org will have a link at the top of the main page to view the tournament live. I will also be attempting to blog live from the event via my Blackberry! No promises though, this damn phone is smarter than I am, so I'm not sure if it will work out. Stay Tuned.

Things are looking pretty VEXY at LYR

Welcome back to the Robotics blog. It's been a quiet couple of months since Robonautica, and we've all been taking a few deep breaths and trying to recharge the batteries. ( not the robots batteries, ours!)

Things haven't stopped completely up at World Headquarters though. Things are looking pretty VEXY down at the other end of the building. The High School VEX teams have been competing and practicing over the last month and a half and have amassed a few more pieces of hardware for the trophy case. Leominster teams took 3 of the top 4 spots in the CT VEX championships last month. LHS took home the Programming award and the Champions award. The teams are taking one more week to tweak their bots, before they head down to Maryland to take on a couple hundred teams from all over the country at the Mid Atlantic VEX Championships being held in Westminster Maryland February 25th -27th. Yours Truly will be wielding the microphone as the emcee for some of the tournament!!!

At the same time in Worcester at the MA Middle school VEX Championships, the Jr Devil Dawgs of LYR were dominating the competition as they took home the Champions award and the Engineering award.

New to the VEX scene are the Geared Gators, fresh off of their successful Lego Robotics season, they are now trying their hand at VEX. The robot is built, programmed, and ready to compete. The team of 5th and 6th graders will be competing at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston next month against all High School teams. They will then be competing the very next week at Quinsigamond Community College in the Middle School New England Championships.


Down at the quiet end of the hallway, the 2009 Lego season is behind us and work is being done on the facility to make sure that the 2010 season is even better. Rooms are being re-arranged, new tables are being built, and we are doing our best to upgrade the technology that will be available to the teams.

We are working diligently to try to raise the necessary funds to keep the program running at the level we all would like to see it run. Grants are being applied for and corporate sponsors are being sought.

I'll post the tournament info from Maryland as it happens. Until then, keep on roboting, and we'll see you soon!

End of the Lego season

Well, so ends Smart Moves FLL 2009. what a fantastic season. We saw LYR established as a 501c, the number of teams jumped from 10 to 16 and we added VEX to the program. Blue Thunder 3 was a great success with numerous Leominster teams taking awards. Shrewsbury saw the rise of the Gators to Tournament Champions, as well as a couple of new teams establishing themselves as a force. The Roaring Dragons of Flame took the team spirit award, the Rampaging Robojets came home with the Rising Star award, and three golden tickets came home to Leominster. The Pink Flamingos flexed their muscles at Agawam and took the Synergy award for teamsmanship, while the Wild Horses put themselves on the map with the creative project award. Robonautica was a spectacle as usual with the mighty teams from the Boston area showing off for all to see. The Flamingos knocked off the #1 Mindstorms Mayhem team from NH en route to a 4th place performance award. The Devil Dolls shouted their way to their second team spirit award of the season, and the Gators showed off their new Gatormobile to catch the eye of the FIRST Directors. All in all it was a great success and everyone should be proud and excited. The Mayor of our fine City and our local State Senator both took part in helping out teams, as did numerous members of the City Council, proving that the program is something that the city is in full support of. The season was only as good as it was because of the coaches and mentors who worked tirelessly with every team. We must not forget Brendan, Tina, and Marie who have steered the LYR ship with the utmost professionalism and enthusiasm. The BEEMAN has been amazing with the website and keeping up with all the latest happenings of LYR. And how can we overlook the amazing kids that have worked their butts off to make us all so proud throughout the season!!!!

I want to thank everyone involved in this seasons success and wish everyone a Happy and Safe Holiday Season.

Lego may be done for now, but VEX is just getting rolling, come out and see what the older kids are doing and please join us for the Inaugural LYR Invitational VEX tournament on February 6th at Tata Auditorium!!!!!