By Nicole MOORE

Rosemont Middle School’s Robotics Club is participating in this year’s First Lego League competition. The FLL competition is a nationwide event where students, who are interested in STEM, form teams, research a specific problem, find solutions for that problem and build a robot within a period of a few months. The theme for this year’s FLL competition is “Animal Allies.”

The Rosemont Robotics Club has split into two teams, The Unoriginals and AT725, for the competition. The students currently involved with the Rosemont FLL teams are Nolan Brown, Vikram Chilkunda, Adarsh Chilkunda, Aidan Choi, Kevin Dong, Caeden Harrison, Joey Janosko, Jack Mawhinney, Aarnav Saxena and Will Sim-Oliver.

Rosemont’s FLL robotics teams meet once a week for an hour and half with their advisor Celine Young, a math teacher at Rosemont, and Ashley Sim, the parent coach. Celine Young has been the Rosemont Robotics Club advisor since 2005. In 2012, 2013, and 2015 Rosemont robotics teams, advised under Young, have participated in the FLL competition.

“I enjoy giving students an opportunity to be exposed to challenging, yet fun, problem- solving activities involved in robotics. I like giving students team-building activities prior to delving into their robotics challenge,” said Young.

Adarsh and Vikram Chilkunda, members of The Unoriginals, revealed for the competition that their team has researched different approaches to assist endangered Maui dolphins. The population of Maui dolphins has decreased due to the animals drowning in fishing nets. The team, with the help of Dr. Campbell Plowden, executive director and founder of the Center for Amazon Community Ecology, came up with the solution of tightening the fishing nets.

The team members, then created the website http://theunoriginalsproject.weebly.com/ as a way to inform the public of the Maui dolphins’ endangerment. On their website there is a link to a Greenpeace petition urging the New Zealand government to help protect Maui dolphins. As of now, 179 people have visited the team’s website.

Additionally, the  AT725 team has been brainstorming new ways to help sea mammals that have been maimed or killed by watercrafts. The team’s solution is to place transmitters, producing a high-pitched signal as a form of detection, on the bottom of watercrafts in order to deter sea mammals. The team would also like to impose speed limits for watercrafts in areas where there is a large manatee population, specifically along the Florida coast. Additionally, the team has conducted outreach with boat owners and Florida residents to gather support for their cause.

Both The Unoriginals and AT725 will be participating at a FLL qualifying tournament on Nov. 20 at La Cañada High School.

  Nicole MOORE