Stamford Robotics

<Check out the photos from this year's event>

Our second annual Junior FIRST LEGO League Expo in Stamford was successfully completed on February 8th, 2009! Thank you to all the teams that took the challenge, all the youth (high school, middle school and even elementary) who stepped up to be mentors, as well as all the coaches, volunteers etc. who made this event happen. Also a big thank you to our partners, Stamford Public Education Foundation and the Parent Teacher Council of Stamford. And finally, thanks to our corporate sponsors who contributed funding and in one case employee mentors to teams!

Our event was held at the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering which provided an outstanding (and appropriate!) venue for this youth science/engineering event.

29 Teams took the JFLL "Climate Connections" challenge this year (22 attended the city-wide Expo, another 6 will be having a mini Expo at their school). These teams represented 6 elementary schools as well as 2 community organizations and one community team.  We even had 1 team from New Jersey!  Our community organizations especially stepped up this year.  Last year only one community organization participated - Boys and Girls Club of Stamford.  Well, they were back and better than ever, but with 4 teams from YMCA our community organization representation was really strong.  We hope for even more next year!

As organizers of the event, Stamford Robotics volunteers were eager to see what these teams of JFLL students would come up with and we weren't disappointed! Their cool LEGO designs and impressive knowledge of climate were inspiring to the reviewers and all in attendance. From space satellite systems to weather flags these team's varied ideas about cool climate tools was inspirational.

Some items of special note for this year's event:

• This was our first year at AITE. AITE's mission of Information Technology and Engineering provided an excellent context for our event. As well, this brand new technologically sophisticated school provided us with an outstanding venue. Thanks to the AITE students and staff who helped us make this program go.
• Partnerships! Our partnership with SPEF and PTC was great. We really appreciate their continued support of this program. We also want to extend a special thank you to the Pitney Bowes Foundation who not only helped with much needed funding, but perhaps even more importantly, provided outstanding support from Pitney Bowes employees who volunteered their time to mentor teams, organize the event, and volunteer on the day of the event. Their support was beneficial to say the least.
• Special guests! We were honored to have such distinguished guests to come and help recognized the achievements of these 22 teams. Thank you to Vicki O'Meara of Pitney Bowes, Cathy Malloy, Barbara Aronica of SPEF, Steve Rigo of Stamford Robotics, and of course Attorney General Blumenthal. Your attendance was critical to help establish the high value that science education and extracurricular activities have in our community.

And on to the future:

• Thank you to all coaches who provided their feedback on both the Expo itself as well as the entire season. Your feedback was both detailed and helpful.
• 2009/2010 will be here before you know it. We'll be reaching out soon to all involved in JFLL this year to discuss the future of FIRST programs in Stamford. Did you know that we already have 2 rookie high school robotics teams in Stamford? And next up for Stamford Robotics will be to help establish FLL teams (age 9 to 14) in Stamford for the 2009 season. The future opportunities for kids in Stamford are well within reach. We'll need your help and support to make it happen. Let's make sure that 2009/2010 becomes the year when we have FIRST programs available to kids in Stamford of all ages!
• We are looking for both student and adult leaders to help keep this program going strong!  Contact us if you are interested, or just to get on our mailing list!

<Check out the photos from this year's event>