St. Augustine School Robotics and Lego League in South Brunswick Compete in State Championship

Two teams from St. Augustine of Canterbury School competed in the New Jersey State FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Championship event on March 8.  The Robo Knights and the Knights Robotics teams advanced to this event after winning the opportunity at a regional event in November. 

St. Augustine of Canterbury School started its FIRST LEGO League (FLL) program in the 2013-2014 school year. The FLL program is part of the US FIRST Robotics organization. Two teams were started for this rookie season, both consisting of fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. 

At the competitions, the teams had to make presentations to three different panels of judges, on three of the four components of the program.  These include a presentation of their project solution, the presentation of their robot, and the presentation and live task on the team's Core Values.  Then the team members run their robots to in the robot game.  Points are earned for each mission that their robot completes. The top score earned by each team determines their ranking in this event. 

The Robo Knights and the Knight Robotics competed at the regional competition in Bridgewater on November 23.  Only the top seven teams moved forward to the State Competition. Both of the rookie teams from St. Augustine teams scored in the top 10% in all four categories and won the opportunity to compete in the State Competition.

At the State Championship Competition, both teams had another outstanding performance.  The Knights Robotics team won the second place award for Teamwork and brought home a trophy for their accomplishment.  In the robot game performance, the Robo Knights’ top score of 418 landed them in 6th place, and the Knight Robotics’ top score of 361 landed them in 16th place.   The two teams competed among the top sixty teams in the state.  The two teams’ performances overall as rookies were exceptional.

Written by:

Dave Murawski

FLL Coach and School Parent