ALL-GIRLS ROBOTICS TEAM WINS RHODE ISLAND FIRST?? Lego?? League STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Bay View???s Robotics Team is the Only All-Girls Team to Win States…Not Once, But TWICE
Left to Right: Isabella Heffernan, Lucy Bosch, Maeve Martineau, Ainsley Pattie, Eva Mattos, Ava Troino, Gabriella Osorio-Palo, Margaret Mahoney, Wren Hager with Coach Linda Grasso
East Providence, RI ??? It???s the second time that an all-girls team has won the state FIRST?? Lego?? League championship competition. And, it???s the second time that team has been from Bay View Academy. On Saturday, January 14th, one of Bay View???s two competing teams, S.M.A.R.T 2.0 (St. Mary Academy Robotics Team), won the state competition and qualified to compete in the international FIRST?? Lego?? League World Festival in April. The ten students on S.M.A.R.T 2.0 also won individual $20,000 scholarships to Roger Williams University.
Each year, FIRST?? Lego?? League sets a theme for the competition, referred to as the Challenge. The competition has three parts: the Robot Game, the Project, and Core Values. In the Robot Game, students write code in order to prompt an autonomous robot to accomplish a specific set of tasks. For the Project, students identify a problem, research, and present a solution to judges. Throughout the Robot Game and the Project presentation, teams are judged based on their alignment with FIRST?? Lego?? League Core Values.
Eva Mattos from Providence
This year???s theme is ???Animal Allies.??? For S.M.A.R.T. 2.0???s Project, they set about enhancing GPS for blind users, by outfitting seeing eye dogs with a vest that tells them which direction to turn. The idea is that the vests have three sensors, one on the left, one of the right, and one on the back towards the tail. When a map app tells the user to turn left, the left sensor on the vest would vibrate. Turn right and the right sensor vibrates. The back sensor would be to indicate whether the dog should continue moving forward. S.M.A.R.T. 2.0???s Project presentation included a book they created, ???Once Upon a Tail,??? in which a blind princess is granted a dog trained with one of these vests. To round out the fairy ???tail,??? a dog named ???Sir Ruffington??? serves as the knight in shining armor.
Margaret Mahoney (left) from East Providence and Gabriella Osorio-Palo (right) from Cranston
This is the first year that Bay View has entered two teams into the FIRST?? Lego?? League qualifiers, which took place on November 19th. S.M.A.R.T. started as an after school program at the Academy, with only one team of a maximum ten students. Interest outgrew the team limit of ten, so this year Bay View offered S.M.A.R.T. 2.0. Additionally, robotics was offered as part of the Middle School elective curriculum. Both S.M.A.R.T. and S.M.A.R.T 2.0 qualified in November to compete at the January 14th championship. According to the Rhode Island Students of the Future (RISEF) website, ???over 600 students are part of 64 FIRST LEGO League teams, 40 of which advanced through our qualifying tournament system to the FIRST LEGO League state championship in January.??? Only one team from Rhode Island goes onto the international FIRST?? Lego?? League World Festival. This year???s World Festival will be held from April 26th – April 29th in St. Louis, Missouri.
The team looks forward to competing at the World Festival. They are presently fundraising to cover the cost of airfare and hotel and appreciate any help the community would like to provide. Those interested in contributing may do so at gofundme.com/bayviewrobotics
As S.M.A.R.T and S.M.A.R.T. 2.0 continue to show the aptitude and interest of Bay View Middle School students in robotics, curriculum and extra-curricular offerings are expanding in the Lower and Upper School levels, too. Bee S.M.A.R.T. Jr., a third grade after school robotics program, began this fall as part of FIRST?? Lego?? League, Jr. In the Upper School, two new Advanced Placement Computer Science classes are being added to the course offerings.????
The following students competed as S.M.A.R.T. 2.0 and are invited to the World Festival, under the direction of their coach, Linda Grasso (Exeter).
Lucy Bosch (Providence)
Wren Hager (Bristol)
Isabella Heffernan (Warwick)
Margaret Mahoney (East Providence)
Maeve Martineau (Warwick)
Eva Matos (Providence)
Gabriella Osorio-Palo (Cranston)
Ainsley Pattie (Warren)
Daria Smuk (Smithfield)
Ava Troino (East Providence)
History of S.M.A.R.T. Awards at States and World Festival
2009 – 2nd Place Champions Award (States)
2009 – United States Open Championship Team Spirit Award (National)
2010 – FLL Team Award (States)
2011 – 1st Place Champions – Invitation to World Festival (States)
2012 – Presentation Award (States)
2013 – Innovative Solutions Award (States)
2015 – 3rd Place Robot Performance Challenge (States)
2016 – Mechanical Design Award (States)
2017 – 1st Place Champions – Invitation to World Festival (States)
Photo Credit: Barbara Haynes????