Team Queso wins "Best Innovative Research Project Award" at robotics tournament

Two Academy teams consisting of 20 students attended the national chapter of the FIRST Lego League robotics competition in Bangalore on the weekend of 23-24th February 2019. One of them came away with an award.

The Academy teams were two of four from Hyderabad that made it through to the nationals, after qualifying from the local chapter of FIRST Lego League (FLL), an international robotics competition for elementary and middle school students that was held across 98 countries in 2019. FLL brings students together in teams to research a real world problem such as food safety, recycling, energy, etc., and challenges them to develop a solution. They also must design, build, and program a robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS® technology, then compete on a table-top playing field. The competition encourages kids to think like scientists and engineers. This year over 40,000 teams consisting of half a million students participated in FLL challenges across the world.

In Bangalore, there were over 40 teams participating from all over India. "The event ran for two days and an eclectic group of parents, coaches and young students were present," says Afeera Maryam, Academy FLL coach. "There was an eager exchange of ideas and conversation between the teams, and it was an example of what student agency can achieve if they work together." During the INTO ORBIT season, teams chose and attempted to solve a real-world problem. They built, tested, and programmed an autonomous robot using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® technology to solve a set of missions in the Robot Game. Throughout their experience, all teams operated under the FIRST signature set of core values, celebrating discovery, teamwork, and gracious professionalism®.The finalists will represent India in Detroit in April.  

This was the first time that students had represented AKA Hyderabad in a national robotics event. Team Queso made us proud for winning the Best Innovative Research Project Award for their creative solution to the space exploration problem. "I am of course devastated for not making it to the internationals, but this was an experience we will always remember," remarked Alyque Farishta, captain of Team Queso, while grade 7's Adam Oshon said, "I can't wait for next year's nationals!" 

Contributed by Afeera Maryam & Anantha Muralikrishna