Local Robotics Students Take Aim At Food Safety

Students aged 9 to 14 from around Southern California will converge on the UCR Palm Desert campus today to compete in the 2011 First Lego League “Food Factor” Challenge.

To win the tournament, teams have to design and build a robot that explores the ways food can be contaminated and find a solution to keep food safe.

Parker Cassar, 11, will not be able to participate in this tournament because he is a member of Xtreme Team, which is organized by SMaRT Education, which is hosting the tournament.

But he and his team will be able to compete at other tournaments and his favorite part of the FLL challenge is when the robot moves parts around the competition board.

"Your robot is only allowed to put one in at a time. That's why I like it because it's a challenge," Cassar said.

"There are 21 teams coming tomorrow. A couple of teams are from Riverside and one from Temecula. There has been such incredible growth in the Inland Empire," said Maria Wren, Director of Operations for SMaRT Education.

Qualifiers will be able to move on to the championships on Dec. 3 at Legoland in Carlsbad, according to Wren.

The FLL competition is judged in four areas: project presentation; robot performance; robotic design and programming; and Core Values.

The tournament, which features schools from Palm Desert, Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City and Indio, is hosted by the local nonprofit SMaRT Education.

“We aim to have the students who participate in our programs become the next leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs that will carry our communities and cities into the next generation," said Liberty Naud, Founder and Executive Director of SMaRT Education.