Two Awards for Exit 5A Robotics At Detroit FLL World Festival

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In its final year of FIRST Lego League, the all-girls Exit 5A Robotics (E5A) team #2228, completed their season in grand fashion with an Inspiration Award and Coach/Mentor Award at the FLL Detroit World Festival. The FLL World Festival comprises two events in Detroit (April 24-27, 2019) and Houston (April 17-20, 2019) that celebrate the final 200 teams from over 40,000 that start the season from around the world. As one of the 40,000 teams, E5A started their season in the Northern New Jersey region with over 400 teams competing.

As daunting as the task seemed, they did well in their November Hillsborough qualifier with a 2nd Place Robot Award and the overall Champions Award, which qualified them for the Northern NJ Championships in December. With 80 teams competing, E5A secured overall Champions Award again and qualified for World Festival. Hailing from both Livingston and Parsippany, this year’s team members Vaishnavi Amin, Jannet Chari, Julia Chen, Annica Lam, Amy Li, Elaina Mann, Maggie Siao, Chloe Sivitz, and Summer Yung.

FLL competitions comprise three disciplines: robot design/performance, research project, and core values. Although nominally a competition, the FLL World Festivals are much more a celebration of Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition than an outright competition. Each team member came away with a unique perspective on the season and the World Festival.

Going around to other team booths to learning what other teams had created was the most engaging part of the event for Chari, who noted that it was very interesting to see the different teams used. Each team approached the problem differently, spending lots of time researching what would and wouldn't work. “Overall, the experience was very eye-opening and allowed to understand how forward facing our generation is, especially the kids I saw at the competition.”

Sivitz found it to be a whole different experience from any other FIRST event. She noted “It opened our eyes to other team’s journeys and encouraged all of us to become our best selves and show the entire world what our team represented. FLL has taught us not just how to program robots or research skills, but how to interact with others and create a positive and inclusive environment where we are encouraged to express ourselves creatively and share with others. 10/10. Would recommend!”

In her 5th and last year of FLL, but going to the World Festival for the first time, Lam reflected that the journey was “An incredible experience spent with so many talented and smart people. Since starting Exit 5A robotics, each season has been full of laughter and happiness. FLL has not only taught our all-girls to love STEM but it has also grown us into the best of friends. In the end, we are all different programmers, engineers, and innovators who have found what they love to do and have learned to work smarter and more efficiently in order to think critically and solve problems in the world around us.”

Also one of the original six members (along with Chari, Chen, Lam, Sivitz, Siao) of the E5A team, Yung noted that “Looking back, I have experienced and learned so much in these past 5 years, especially the last two. The 2019 World Festival was an amazing experience of meeting other great FIRST teams to just feeling the rush of excitement everyday. FIRST and FLL has helped me so much in developing my passion for STEM and giving the opportunity for me to meet new, amazing people.

For Chen, being a part of the World Festival taught her that bonding with her team and other teams makes an meaningful impact. According to her, "That bonding created a sense of family unlike any other, giving the competition a friendlier atmosphere where everyone could just focus on getting to know each other.”

Mann in her second season, looked back to the 2018 North American Open Championships and embraced the experience of meeting teams from different states and countries along with their unique robot designs and novel project ideas. “Going to the 2019 World Festival was the best conclusion to our years spent as a team that I could’ve hoped for. The skills, lessons, memories, and bonds we formed formed over the years was worth more than any trophy, and I’m glad we were fortunate enough to end our FLL careers with the fun and excitement we experienced during the world festival.”

Amin in her first season with the team, emphasized that “Working alongside a group of 8 other girls has greatly impacted my experience. They have taught me what it means to be a teammate, how to work together to solve an obstacle. I’ve learned about a new genre of music that I listen to now! One of my favorite parts of the season were the outreaches because they allowed us to reach out to kids (especially girls) in our community in a different and fun way. E5A moving onto world championships was an outstanding achievement. We were able to meet and compete against teams from all different parts of the world & of an abundance of cultures. To me, STEM has shown me not only the progression and fusion of ideas and inventions, but also the union of people worldwide. FLL is definitely an experience I’ll never forget!”

Li also in her first season found also cited the strong bonds that came with contributing to and being a part of a strong team. “The World Festival was amazing due to the thousands in attendance representing areas around the world. It was a thrilling experience to be able to communicate with people from such diverse cultures. I really appreciated the foundation that FLL created to make all this possible.”

For Siao, she found that “the most valuable things about robotics are the life lessons you experience. It’s more than just robots and programming. You develop skills for research, presentation, and communication too. It helps kids become leaders and more intuitive. Exit 5A has become family and I’ll carry these memories with me forever.”

The team would also like to thank their long time sponsors for their financial support: Morgan Stanley, Livingston Robotics Club, Dr. Charles Ditta, Bernard Gorkowitz, DDS-Orthodontist, Livingston Huaxia Chinese School, and Wushu-Kung Fu Fitness Center.

Exit 5A Robotics is a member of the Livingston Robotics Club, a 501c.3 nonprofit. Please contact exit5arobotics@gmail.com for more information about forming a team or entering a robotics competition. As part of their long history of outreaches, the team will continue in their efforts to promote STEM and inspire young women to become STEM heroes.

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