Northeast Georgia’s First Robotics Tournament To Be Held at Athens Academy

The community is invited to see  robots compete, talk to the student team members, and learn more about the FLL and robotics at Northeast Georgia’s First Robotics Tournament on Dec. 10 at .

Faculty advisor Mike Callinan and his Middle School robotics team, known as the "Sparbots,” are excited to host the event on their campus. 

“We’re working hard, designing and programming the robot and getting ready for this competition,” Callinan said in a news release.

He and his team have also been mentoring the newly-formed team from , Clarke County’s first and only FLL robotics team. 

"The kids at Coile are the only public school team that I know of in Northeast Georgia," he said.  "It’s been great to work with Hilary Ruston and her team, as well as their mentor, UGA, College of Agriculture professor, Dr. Chi Thai.”

The theme for the tournament is “Food Factor,” which challenges the teams to improve the quality of food by finding ways to prevent food contamination. Teams will build, test, and program an autonomous robot using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT to solve a set of Food Safety missions as well as research, develop, and share their innovative food safety solutions, according to the news release.

The event gets underway at 9 a.m. with opening ceremonies in the Harrison Center Performance Hall at Athens Academy.  Competition will begin there at 10 a.m., but the teams will also set up in a science fair-type format in nearby Barrett Hall, where they will give demonstrations and answer questions until 4 p.m. 

For more information about the FIRST®  Lego League, visit www.usfirst.org and click on “FLL” at the top of the page. 

This event is free and open to the public.

 “I think it would be especially interesting for educators who might consider starting similar teams at their own schools, or for local organizations and clubs that might want to compete as well,”  Callinan said.  “It’s amazing how much the kids learn from this kind of creative exploration.  The FLL directors make it harder every year in order to challenge them, since they learn at such an incredible rate.  Creativity, teamwork, computer science—it’s all part of the experience.”

Have you witnessed autonomous robots in action? Are you planning to attend?