4 | Central Connecticut State University School of Engineering & Technology

Fourteenth Annual FIRST LEGO League Competition at CCSU

2012 BEST Robotics Competition Held at CCSUThe 7th BEST (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology) Robotics Connecticut

Hub competition was held in the Alumni Hall of the student center on November 4, 2012. The CCSU Connecticut hub is the only one in the northeast and serves middle schools and high schools in the region. The hub is run by three faculties in the department of Manufacturing and Construction Management: Dr. Ravindra Thamma, Dr. Daniel Kirby and Dr. Haoyu Wang. Many faculties, students and people from outside of the university volunteered to help on the game day.

Schools participate with no cost – no kit fee and no registration fee. Each participating school receives a kit which includes plywood, PVC pipe, hardware, adhesives, piano wire, aluminum, motors and servos, software, a BRAIN (BEST Robotics Advanced Instruction Node programmable platform), a controller, etc. Each team has 6 weeks to design the robot which needs to finish a given job in three minutes. This year’s game, named WARP XX, requires the robot to transport cargos between the earth and an anchor asteroid in geosynchronous orbit 62,000 miles above. The robot needs to climb up and down along a rope which simulates the Space Elevator that connects the earth and the asteroid. While hanging on the rope, the robot needs to retrieve and drop off cargos including soda bottles, whiffle balls, softballs, cardboard and foam made blocks which represent solar panels and Habitation Modules. It is a very challenging game. Hurricane Sandy hit us in late October, 2012 and made it even more challenging for all participating schools that had lost power and had to cancel classes. We were very impressed that 10 teams were able to finish their robots and compete on the game day. They were joined by about 200 students and their family and friends.

More and more schools attend the CCSU BEST Robotics competition because it is low-cost, entertaining, and educational. All faculty, staff, and students of CCSU are invited to get involved in this outstanding volunteer opportunity, or even to attend the competition. We are looking forward to seeing you there in this year game on November 3, 2013.

Boys’ and Girls’ Club of New BritainWith the help of students from CCSU’s Technology and Engineering Education department, middle-schoolers at the Boys’ and

Girls’ Club of New Britain have be participating in a Lego robotics program.

Spring 2013 is the fifth semester in which students in TE 299, Practicum in Technology & Engineering Education, visit the club once or twice per week. For the members of the Boys’ and Girls’ Club in grades four through eight, Lego robotics is one of many afterschool options, including basketball and other athletic activities. Thus, the students in the program must actively elect to pursue robotics. In addition, only those boys and girls who regularly attend the robotics periods and who participate in the projects are permitted to take part.

At this stage, FLL at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club remains an informal afterschool activity, although it is hoped that the club will soon be able to compete in FIRST Lego League tournaments.

For the fourteenth consecutive year, the students and staff of School of Engineering & Technology at CCSU hosted over 500 Connecticut middle-schoolers at the Connecticut FIRST Lego League Tournament on December 9, 2012. More than 1,000 spectators also attended the event, which continues to be free and open to the public. This year’s theme was “Senior Solutions,” with a focus on the quality of life of senior citizens.

The FIRST Lego League—known as “FLL”—is a New-Hampshire-based nonprofit program which issues a Lego robotics challenge each September. In teams of ten, middle-schoolers have about ten weeks to address the two parts of the FLL challenge—the research project and the robot game.

The inaugural Connecticut FLL competition was held at CCSU in 1999. Teams from four states participated in the event—one of 16 nationwide—which focused primarily on the robot game. The research project was added the following year.

Visit our website, ct-fll.org, for more information.