On Saturday Feb. 9 top Lego robotics teams from across the Hudson Valley participated in the FIRST LEGO League Challenge Championship held at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. Sleepy Hollow’s The Sneaky Bots earned a spot at the Championships after their success at a qualifier held in Mamaroneck in January, where their robot ranked second of 24 teams.
At the Championship in Troy, The Sneaky Bots competed against teams from as far south as Yonkers and as far north as Ballston Spa. There, The Sneaky Bots tied for eighth. The team is comprised of three fifth graders from Washington Irving School (Wil Papadopoulos, Sebastian Zagorski and Michael Zammit) and three sixth-graders from Sleepy Hollow Middle School (Tega Nakpodia, Ben Margolius and Robbie Smiley). The students programmed a LEGO Spike Prime robot to complete missions in a 2.5-minute time frame while other teams competed simultaneously.
The program is not just all about Lego robotics though – each year, teams are tasked to create an innovative solution to a real-world challenge. This year’s submerged theme was related to marine biology, which prompted the team to meet people who research the ocean. The team’s success is a tribute to the many local scientists that helped them on their learning journey. The team started with a field trip to the Marine Education Center in Mamaroneck, where they met biologist Kyle Troy, who told them about the importance of estuaries, and her efforts to re-enter oysters into the harbor. They learned how important oysters are to ecosystems for their unique pollution-filtering ability. This inspired them to travel to Governors Island, where they met with representatives from The Billion Oyster Project, which has a goal of restoring 1 billion oysters into the New York Harbor. They measured oysters with calipers, identified species living around them, and learned about other benefits of oyster reefs, such as protecting the coastline from flooding. Inspired by these trips, the team dreamed up the idea of an “Oyster Guardian” robot that could help track the health of oysters and alert researchers of predators.
Demonstrating the engineering design process, they sought out more experts to refine their ideas, and met with Tarrytown resident and PEARL Wet Lab founder, Dr. Glenn Albright, who connected them with Dr. Stephen Gosnell, who runs an oyster research lab at Baruch College. After meeting, they thought of ways to enhance their robot to collect water samples, and audio samples of oysters clapping. Eager to learn more about how to build underwater robots, they sought out Mateo Arencibia, a Sleepy Hollow neighbor and Captain of Hackley School’s ROV MATE team, who gave them a presentation on underwater robotics and advice on how to improve their robot’s functionality. They designed a prototype and 3-D printed the “Oyster Guardian” to show the panel of judges at the competitions. The team hopes that the launch of the Tarrytown PEARL Wet Lab will be possible, so that they and other students can continue learning about marine biology and the important Hudson River ecosystem, home to many oysters and other organisms.
The team’s innovative ideas crossed over to their robot’s attachments as well. One of their most challenging missions was to collect Lego “krill” around the robot table, then open the mouth of a Lego whale and feed the krill to it. The judges and referees were impressed by the team’s use of a “worm gear” to lower a ramp with the krill precisely into the whale’s mouth, as well as a v-shape alignment mechanism.
When asked by the judges what the highlight of the program was, Nakpodia answered, “going on field trips and meeting so many new people that wanted to help us.”
When asked about how the team celebrates success, Papadopoulos said, “We like to stay calm and congratulate our opponents and teammates. By ourselves, we congratulate each other. We always have fun together.”
FIRST Lego teams also need to demonstrate FIRST Core Values (teamwork, impact, discovery, innovation, inclusion, fun, cooperation, gracious professionalism) to succeed. Last Spring, team members Michael, Wil and Sebastian demonstrated their robot at both the Warner Library and at the Irvington Science Fair to promote the program, and inspired a younger team of children in their district to form a First Lego League Explore team (for ages 6-10). The team invited the “Super Builder Bros” to accompany them to their Marine Education Center Field Trip, where they all participated in a seining activity and a waterfront trash pick-up. Over the summer, teammate Michael Zammit spearheaded a collection of used LEGOs that local families no longer wanted and invited teammates and friends to create unique, custom sets out of them for children in need, then packaged and distributed them through W.L. Morse School in Sleepy Hollow. “In doing this, our team demonstrated inclusivity,” said Michael Zammit.
What’s next for the team? They are planning their strategy for next season and are looking for businesses to sponsor their team so they can continue to compete at the next level. They hope their recent success inspires even more kids to form FIRST Lego League teams.
The team was coached by parents Elizabeth and Michael Zammit of Sleepy Hollow and their team’s mentor, Dan Lipin, a seasoned coach at St. Mark’s School in Dallas, Texas, formerly of Hackley School in Tarrytown.
firstlegoleague.org
