Community robotics team eyes Arkansas event
By Mike Hamson
Special Correspondent
TBO.com
Published: April 27, 2016
BLOOMINGDALE — Girls who make up the Squirtle Squad Scholars, a Brandon community robotics team, hope to raise $10,000 so they can represent Florida at the Razorback Invitational in Arkansas in May.
Camille Brosch, 12, a sixth-grader at Burns Middle, said she has learned a lot about programming and how to work as part of a community team. She is on a “First Lego League” team comprised of girls ranging in age from 9 to 12 who attend Burns and Turkey Creek middle schools and Lithia Springs and Cimino elementary schools.
“I am really excited to go to the competition in Arkansas to compete against teams from all around the world and see how they chose to do the missions,” Camille said. “I also enjoyed talking about robotics at the Great American Teach-in and helping rookie teams.”
Camille serves as the captain and tech lead for the team that will compete at a statewide competition May 7 at Hillsborough Community College’s Dale Mabry campus. They will be with 36 of the best teams out of 650 from Florida.
Eric Brosch of Brandon, the coach of the team, said the next trip is to the University of Arkansas May 19 to 22, where they will compete with 72 teams from around the world at the Razorback Invitational.
“As her dad, I find it exciting to see young girls excelling in robotics, math, and science,” he said. “Out of more than 29,000 First Lego League teams in 80 countries, they are in the top 1 percent that have qualified for a postseason competition.”
Brosch said his daughter will likely enter a career one day in the modeling, simulation, and technology industry which uses much of the same technology as video games but for medical and military applications.
“Competitions have four parts: robot games, technical, project and core values,” Brosch said. “Each First Lego League season, all teams around the world get the same mat and Lego obstacles. Using Lego parts and the Lego Mindstorms robot and software, teams design, build, and program their own unique robot to score as many points as possible on that mat in 21⁄2 minutes.”
He said they don’t use a remote control. Everything the robot does has to be programmed.
“This season, that includes programming the robot to knock down a building and recover the pieces, place an engine in a car, and move animals into safety,” he said.
Judges evaluate based on strategy, innovation, design, and efficiency, he said.
To raise money, the girls have had a community garage sale, helped recycle electronics and found corporate sponsors such as Urban E Recycling, a computer and electronic recycling company in Tampa.
“This year, the team focused on laptop computers and finding innovative ways to encourage people to recycle them,” he said. “That’s how we’re working with Urban E Recycling.”
He said the girls have met with a lot of success. This season, they had the top robot game score at Roboticon, won first-place for technical design at a prequalifying tournament, won the championship at a qualifier in Fort Myers and had the top robot game score, and won first-place for core values at the regional championship. They qualified for the state competition and the invitational. Last season, they were also champions at their qualifying tournament and won the core values award at the state competition.
To make a donation, visit the team’s GoFundMe account at gofundme.com/s4y8f69g.
Special Correspondent
TBO.com
Published: April 27, 2016
BLOOMINGDALE — Girls who make up the Squirtle Squad Scholars, a Brandon community robotics team, hope to raise $10,000 so they can represent Florida at the Razorback Invitational in Arkansas in May.
Camille Brosch, 12, a sixth-grader at Burns Middle, said she has learned a lot about programming and how to work as part of a community team. She is on a “First Lego League” team comprised of girls ranging in age from 9 to 12 who attend Burns and Turkey Creek middle schools and Lithia Springs and Cimino elementary schools.
“I am really excited to go to the competition in Arkansas to compete against teams from all around the world and see how they chose to do the missions,” Camille said. “I also enjoyed talking about robotics at the Great American Teach-in and helping rookie teams.”
Camille serves as the captain and tech lead for the team that will compete at a statewide competition May 7 at Hillsborough Community College’s Dale Mabry campus. They will be with 36 of the best teams out of 650 from Florida.
Eric Brosch of Brandon, the coach of the team, said the next trip is to the University of Arkansas May 19 to 22, where they will compete with 72 teams from around the world at the Razorback Invitational.
“As her dad, I find it exciting to see young girls excelling in robotics, math, and science,” he said. “Out of more than 29,000 First Lego League teams in 80 countries, they are in the top 1 percent that have qualified for a postseason competition.”
Brosch said his daughter will likely enter a career one day in the modeling, simulation, and technology industry which uses much of the same technology as video games but for medical and military applications.
“Competitions have four parts: robot games, technical, project and core values,” Brosch said. “Each First Lego League season, all teams around the world get the same mat and Lego obstacles. Using Lego parts and the Lego Mindstorms robot and software, teams design, build, and program their own unique robot to score as many points as possible on that mat in 21⁄2 minutes.”
He said they don’t use a remote control. Everything the robot does has to be programmed.
“This season, that includes programming the robot to knock down a building and recover the pieces, place an engine in a car, and move animals into safety,” he said.
Judges evaluate based on strategy, innovation, design, and efficiency, he said.
To raise money, the girls have had a community garage sale, helped recycle electronics and found corporate sponsors such as Urban E Recycling, a computer and electronic recycling company in Tampa.
“This year, the team focused on laptop computers and finding innovative ways to encourage people to recycle them,” he said. “That’s how we’re working with Urban E Recycling.”
He said the girls have met with a lot of success. This season, they had the top robot game score at Roboticon, won first-place for technical design at a prequalifying tournament, won the championship at a qualifier in Fort Myers and had the top robot game score, and won first-place for core values at the regional championship. They qualified for the state competition and the invitational. Last season, they were also champions at their qualifying tournament and won the core values award at the state competition.
To make a donation, visit the team’s GoFundMe account at gofundme.com/s4y8f69g.
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