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!