FLL participants and coaches study this year's robot challenge board.

Rhode Island's First Lego League (FLL) robotics program launched their 2013-14 season this morning with scores of coaches, parents, and enthusiastic students attending the kickoff event at New England Institute of Technology in East Greenwich.

The theme for this year's event is "Nature's Fury," and today's participants were able to get a first look at the "robot game" (the set of challenges each team's Lego robot must be programmed to complete) as well as learn more about the specs for the research project (which, this year, must focus on natural disasters.)

Mary Johnson, the executive director of the RI School of the Future, one of the main sponsors of FLL, was on hand to talk with coaches and participants. "Registration is open for another week," she told harddeadlines, adding that any teams thinking about joining should act now. "When FLL hits 20,0000 teams globally, registration closes."

Last year, according to a handout, more than 500 Rhode Island students, ages 9-14, participated in 65 FLL teams that faced off in a series of qualifying competitions judging robotics programming and research skills, which must all be executed with teamwork and core values including "gracious professionalism" and "coopertition."

For this year's research challenge, teams must identify a disaster scenario caused by a force of nature -- including earthquakes, floods, hurricanes -- and identify a solution to one of the problems it causes in a specific community. The robot challenge uses a game board designed to evoke "the destructive energy of natural events," and includes tasks like delivering water and supplies, moving people and pets, and triggering a cargo plane to fly down a wire to the runway; this year also includes new penalties for uncollected strategic pieces ("junk") and excess robot width ("sprawl.") Full challenge details are available in a pdf on the FLL site.

FLL RI Executive Director Mary Johnson confers with a coach.

National Grid has come on board this year as a sponsor for the first time in Rhode Island, according to Johnson. "We're pleased and excited to have National Grid," she said. "We can grow without raising team fees." Other sponsors include SAIC, Roger Williams University, NE Tech, and Edwards Wildman.

FLL RI plans a series of programming workshops and a "meet the experts" event over the next two months before the qualifying tournaments begin in November. There are four planned, in Narragansett, Riverside, Bristol, and Newport (at Salve Regina University on December 8) all leading up to the state championship event at RWU in January. Last year, the All Saints Academy team from Middletown won the state title and took first place in the presentation category at the world festival in St. Louis.

More information is available at the RI School for the Future and the FLL site.

All Saints Academy takes home the FLL Champion's Award.

After three rounds of competition, as well as judging on project research, presentation, and core values, the First Lego League team from Middletown's All Saints Academy, "Mindstorms Mayhem" took home the Champion's Award in today's finals at Roger Williams University. They'll move on to the world-wide competition in April.

Our Portsmouth Middle School "Gyzmo Geezers" performed admirably, racking up higher scores with each run, and the kids showed professionalism, grace under pressure, and strong team spirit.

Congratulations to all the participants, and thanks again to Ms. Silveira and Ms. Pacheco, and all the parent volunteers who worked so hard to make this happen.

Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI2) watches contestants at RI FLL Finals.

Congressman Jim Langevin kicked off the RI First Lego League finals at Roger Williams University this morning, praising the 400 students as the "job creators of tomorrow," and thanking the host and sponsors of the event, calling the robotics competition the kind of thing that would "foster the development of tomorrow's innovative leaders."

After helping to open the the event, Rep. Langevin stayed to watch the first round of competition, looking on as the roughly 40 teams from around the state put their robots through their paces.

Portsmouth Middle School Robotics team anxiously watches a test run at the state championship.

There was a fine cold mist over the Sakonnet as the robot competitors began to arrive at Roger Williams University in the early morning hours for the RI First Lego League championship. They came wearing t-shirts and jumpsuits, lugging laptop cases, props, and Tupperware containers of robot parts, and settled in the "pit," the staging area where they began to do final tweaks on their robots before the competition begins at 11:45.

The scene was tense but professional as the nearly 400 middle schoolers set up their robots, ran practice sessions, and casually – but with a professional eye – wandered the room to check out how their competitors were doing. With 14 different possible "missions" to accomplish on the 93"x45" table in just two-and-a-half minutes, teams had many different approaches and a wide range of designs, all using the basic building blocks of the Lego Mindstorms NXT system.

The Portsmouth Middle School team spent their time perfecting their bowling mission, where the robot traverses the length of the table, turns 90 degrees to release a ball and knock down six bowling pins, and then pirouettes backward to scoot up on a tipping platform.

Opening ceremonies are at 11:15 in the Roger Williams field house, and the PMS Gyzmo Geezers will be competing at 12:15 on Table 1, at 2:05 on Table 2, and at 2:50 on Table 3.

Good luck to all the participants!

PMS team makes final tweaks to robot program.

PMS team members set up robot at Dec 1 qualifying round in Warren.

Forty robotics teams from schools around the state will meet at Roger Williams University tomorrow to compete for the championship in the RI First Lego League (FLL), and Portsmouth Middle School will be there.

The mostly 7th-grade PMS team, The Gyzmo Geezer Gang, coached by teachers Rebecca Silveira and Kristen Pacheco, faced stiff competition in the qualifying round at Kickemuit Middle School in Warren on December 1, but came away with the third-highest score in robot performance.

The theme of this year's competition is "Senior Solutions," and teams have to design and program their robots, built with Lego Mindstorms, to navigate a complex space and earn points by performing specific tasks (line up "quilts," push a dog on a skateboard, balance on a tilting surface, retrieve a chair).

Students also had to design a helpful tool for seniors and introduce it in a team-based presentation, as well as demonstrating (and being judged on) core values including teamwork, friendly competition, shared learning, and "gracious professionalism."

First Lego League began in the late 1990s, and according to FLL statistics, now involves more than 200,000 students in more than 60 countries.

The FLL State Championship competition is free and open to the public at Roger Williams University tomorrow from 11am-4pm.

Big thanks to the Portsmouth teachers, staff, and parent volunteers who give so much time to make this all possible!

Full disclosure: My son is on the PMS team. Go Gyzmo Geezers!

Update: Swapped in a better image.