Utah team takes home award at FIRST LEGO League robot competition
SALT LAKE CITY — A team of LEGO robot-building students, the Electro Sloths, brought home an award from the FIRST LEGO League Challenge in Texas this month.
Ten kids between the fifth and eighth grades make up Utah’s Electro Sloths.
Sriram Chaganti’s son is part of the team. He said anyone with an interest in STEM can form a team, whether that’s within a middle school or high school or from homeschooling parents putting groups together.
“We have one of our friends who [has been ] a coach the last ten years for the robotics competition. He formed a team and my son was part of it,” Chaganti said.
From April 17-20, the Electro Sloths were in Houston, Texas for the FIRST LEGO League Challenge.
Robotics nonprofit, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, or FIRST, sponsored the challenge.
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For the competition, each team had to create a robot using LEGO blocks. Chaganti said teams were given a series of tasks the robot had to perform.
This year, Chaganti said the robot had to perform tasks within a “theme park.”
“The robot has to go and turn the wheels which turn on the music player and carry LEGO people. All these are LEGO pieces. [The robot] carries Lego pieces from one place to the other,” Chaganti said. “It has to go pull a lever so that the roller coaster goes up and then it launches a bunch of lights and they have to go and push those off so it drives the wind van.”
The journey to the FIRST LEGO League Challenge
According to Chaganti, preparation for the competition began just before Thanksgiving.
“It goes all the way to April when they start building the robot, the parts for it, and program the robot.”
The team first competed in regional awards and moved on to the state championships. This year, the Electro Sloths beat out 36 other teams during the Utah state championship to earn the right to be the only team in their division to represent Utah in Texas.
In Texas, 152 teams from around the world competed in the same division as the Electro Sloths. In the end, the Sloths won the Breakthrough award.
Chaganti said the competition isn’t just about building the robots, but also about teamwork and adopting the core values of the competition.
Chaganti said the kids couldn’t have done it without their coach, Krishna Kanth, who they call KK.
“I think he’s an incredible mentor and leader for the team, ” Chaganti said. “He not only provided the technical expertise, but also emphasized the importance of the teamwork, the perseverance, and sportsmanship and also living the core values of the FIRST Championship.”
