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 Also, Jonathan has co-authored another book about how to start a team and compete in First LEGO League which you can find more information about and purchase here on Amazon.com. Below are covers of the four books he has co-authored. You can click on a cover to get more information about that book:     Finally, we redid the video of the 2007-2008 year and you can watch it here or, if your computer supports it, in the mini-player below: Saturday, December 8th 2007 -- The team competed at the NJ State Championship along with 47 other teams that won awards at their qualifying tournaments. We were very happy to see that the younger Built On The Rock team showed themselves to be every bit as competitive as the exceptional team from last year. And to answer a common question, they did it without any mentoring from the alumni. After making a few significant improvements following the Montclair tournament, and nearly flawless practice runs all week leading up to the NJ State Championship, we had high expectations of achieving 3 perfect scores. The robot was also able to complete the two-team satellite mission in less than a second. We achieved a perfect score (400) in the first round, but some unusual events, unrelated to the robot's performance, prevented that in the second and third rounds (read more about that here). In the end, the one 400 we scored was enough to win 1st Place Robot Performance! The Robo Invaders had a motor burn out the night before the tournament, and worked late into the night to rebuild and retune the robot. They did very well in spite of this set back, but were not quite able to get another 400, and finished in third place. An incredible rookie team, the Landroids, won the Champion's Award, and will be going to Atlanta for NJ. You can check out videos of this year's team and robot in the Press and Videos section, and find pictures in the Gallery. Saturday, December 1st 2007 -- We competed at a regional competition in Montclair, NJ. There were some very competitive teams there! We won the 1st Place Robot Performance award with two perfect scores of 400 as well as a 390. Another team called the "Robo Invaders" also scored two 400's (one unofficially) after getting a 315 and 355. We will be going to the State Championships on Saturday with them and three other high caliber teams from this tournament. Wednesday, November 28th 2007 -- We presented a workshop on the Junior FIRST Lego League, FIRST Lego League, and FIRST Tech programs at the Bethlehem Church in Randolph together with Team Overdrive and Karen Flores. After describing the FLL Program, we showed our robot and research presentation for this year's challenge. We had a great turnout with thirty-nine families and over one hundred people who attended the event. You can see several pictures from the event in the Gallery. Wednesday, October 31st 2007 -- As part of this year's research on Organic Solar Cells we met with Dr. Somenath Mitra, chairman of the Chemistry Department at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, to learn about the research he's doing in this area. (See www.sciencedaily.com). Friday, October 19th 2007 -- The Built On The Rock team of 2007-2008 conducted their energy audit at the Independence Township Municipal Building. We are very grateful to all the Independence Township officials for supporting our team, and we especially want to thank Ms. Debbie Hrebenack and Mr. Ernest Kenny for all their invaluable help to the team. They provided the team extensive access to the building, answered all their questions, helped them make measurements, and even pulled out electric bills and blue prints to help the team find the necessary information for the audit.  Monday, October 8th 2007 -- Former team member Jonathan Daudelin has co-authored two books with members of the popular NXT blog, The NXT Step. The LEGO Mindstorms NXT Idea Book has instructions for building and programming 8 robots using the NXT kit and can be purchased from LEGO or Amazon where it has frequently been listed the number 1 robotics best seller. His second book, NXT Robotics Competition Workbook offers detailed advice on Lego NXT competitions such as FIRST Lego League and can be purchased from The NXT Step Storefront. Tuesday, May 1st 2007 -- We registered Built On The Rock for the new season as soon as registration opened and were assigned team number 19. Also, the website has been updated with all of our videos from this year, a picture of this season's trophies in the Awards section, and of course the above picture which was taken with NXT Blogger and Author, Jim Kelly, at the First Lego League World Festival. Friday, April 13th 2007 -- We did it!! At the World Championships in Atlanta, Georgia our robot came in first place with three perfect scores of 400 - something which has only been done once before at the World Championships. The winners from last year, Mindstorms Troopers, also achieved three perfect runs so the judges called it a tie and gave both of us first place trophies. Our team was also awarded the first place Innovative Robot award. There were 94 FLL teams competing at the event representing all 50 states and a total of 22 different countries from around the world. Pictures from the competition will be posted in the gallery shortly. Thursday, March 29th 2007 -- The team had a half-hour, live, radio interview with Joyce Estey on WRNJ's NEWSLINE radio program. Pictures of the team in the studio are up in the Gallery. Tuesday, March 13th 2007 -- We gave a presentation about FIRST Lego League, our research project on Nanotechnology, and our robot at a local township committee meeting. We showed members of our local police force how nanotechnology is improving police uniforms, and afterwards our police chief gave us an encouraging send-off to the World Festival. Jonathan showed some of the many children there about the LEGO Mindstorms NXT system, while other team members answered questions their parents had about the FLL competition. It was another great way to share some of the things we've learned as part of this great experience with our community. Saturday, March 3rd 2007 -- Our team was invited to volunteer at the NJ State Regional FIRST Robotics Competition in Trenton, New Jersey. We had a great time talking with many people who were interested in the FIRST Lego League program, demonstrating the robot, and watching the final rounds of the competition. Friday, March 2nd 2007 -- The team gave 3 presentations at a nearby middle school about the FIRST Lego League program and our specific research project on Nanotechnology. There were approximately 450 students attending from 6th to 8th grade. Friday, February 20th 2007 -- We gave a presentation at the National Instruments' Users Group meeting on the impact of FIRST Lego League, our robot for this year's challenge, and our research on NanoFabric. Thursday, February 1st 2007 -- The Cracked Pot ran an article about the FLL program in general, another homeschooled FLL team, and our team's performance in their latest News Section. It's just been aded to our "Press and Videos" section so you can check it out there. Saturday, January 27th 2007 -- We competed at a tournament sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania College of Engineering in Philadelphia and won 1st place in Robot Performance (with a perfect score of 400) and the 1st Place Champion's award. There were 33 teams from Virginia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. We hope to have pictures from the event up in the Gallery soon. Thursday, January 11th 2007 -- The Warren Reporter ran an article about the team's NJ State Competition performance. You can read it in the Press and Videos section. Tuesday, December 19th 2006 -- Website up and running! Not all sections have been completed yet, but we hope to get them up soon. :) Saturday, December 9th 2006 -- We competed at the NJ State Championship Tournament and won the Robot Performance and Champions Awards. Our robot achieved 3 perfect scores (400 points) out of 4 matches. Two of these were scored in the three official rounds, and the other when we were asked to be a stand-in (since there were an odd-number of teams). We're now looking for sponsors to help us get to Atlanta, Georgia where we'll be representing New Jersey in the International Competition. There are expected to be 104 teams from 38 countries competing. |