New Canaan Student Wins Robotics Competition

From New Canaan Country School: New Canaan Country School eighth grader Arjun Dayal has won top honors at two Westchester First LEGO League (FLL) Competitions. His team, Robochaps, took first place in four categories—robot performance, robot design, project idea and team core values—at the Hudson Valley qualifying tournament held in Tarrytown, NY on Jan. 28. This qualified the Robochaps to advance to the national FLL semi-finals. There, they won first place in two of the four categories, just shy of what was need to qualify for the finals.

“It may sound strange, but I really like the chaos of robotics and problem solving,” said Arjun when asked what he enjoys most about robotics competitions. “You have to push through until you get past a hurdle.”

As part of the competition, the team’s robot was required to perform several challenges of increasing difficulty. The team worked two hours a day for nearly three months to get their robots ready.

They also had to come up with a solution to a problem in the local community based on this year’s FLL theme “Animal Allies.” Arjun and his teammates created the prototype of an app that would alert people of coyote sightings called “Coexisting Safely with Coyotes in the Urban Areas.”

“We chose coyotes as our project because they are local and affect our residents,” said Arjun.

Since the competition, Arjun has taken the lead on building the Coyote sighting app using Xcode and Objective C, computer languages that he has taught himself. The team recently met with the School Superintendent in Chappaqua, NY to discuss the app and how to promote it within their community; a rural area frequented by coyotes.

Arjun credits his love of robotics to his sixth grade Country School teacher Mr. Fraser Randolph, who leads the Middle School robotics team. “Through this club, my interest became a passion.”

“Arjun is a hard working guy,” says Mr. Randolph “He puts a lot of time into his work and learns from his mistakes.”

Mr. Randolph remembers Arjun’s performance at a Middle School ROBOnanza! competition. “I remember one time, he had to reengineer a robot right on the spot during the middle of the competition. He worked coolly, calmly and arrived in time with a new device. That robot helped us win!”

New Canaan Country School is a co-ed, independent, day school for students in Pre-K (ages 3 & 4) through Grade 9. Located on a 75-acre campus in New Canaan, the school offers transportation to students from Fairfield and Westchester counties. For more information, please visitwww.countryschool.net.

Photo courtesy of the New Canaan Country School