Author: Coach Mike

Vote For Team Igutech!

Thank you for all you help voting for our team’s invention in the FLL Global Innovation Award. With more than 20,000 votes, we placed in top 10% of all entries and we are very grateful for your support.

This year our team is once again competing in the Global Innovation Award Competition! Please support our competition by voting for us. Thanks!

Vote here!

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Click picture to vote!

State Championship

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[HG Jan. 27, 2012] Team Igutech won the prestigious Championship Award (3rd place) at the Delaware State FIRST Lego League tournament on Jan. 26 at the Bob Carpenter Center (university of Delaware). This award recognizes a team that embodies the FLL experience, by fully embracing the FLL Core Values while achieving excellence and innovation in both the Robot Game and the Project. Team Igutech placed 3rd out of 126 FIRST Lego League teams in the Delaware area.Congrats to the team and a  big thank you to all parents and sponsors for their ongoing support.

Although this officially ends the 2012/13 FLL season, the team will continue to develop their Senior-Friendly Video Portal, a new device that Team Igutech invented for their science project in the FIRST Lego League. The Igutechs have already conducted successful trial video calls for seniors at the Luthercrest Senior Residence in Allentown, PA. This enabled a senior in a care facility to connect with her son – who lives too far to visit –  through a simple-to-use video interface. Team Igutech has partnered with the Senior Residence to offer free video calls driven by their volunteer service. Please help the team to develop their invention further into a working prototype by making a tax-deductible donation through the PayPal link to the right. Stay tuned for more information about the Igutech Video Phone. Thank you!

Team Igutech – Season Highlights

 SeniorPartner Weiner-01 Pilot run with Team Igutech’s senior-friendly communication device.
SeniorPartner Weiner-02 Mrs. Jeanne W. – Team Igutech’s senior partner for the FLL Season 2012 ‘Senior Solutions’
 SeniorPartner Nedwich 02 Mrs. Eileen N. – Team Igutech’s second senior partner for the 2012 First Lego League challenge.
 GU3 7014 Team Igutech visist Luthercrest Senior Residence in Allentown, PA) for the third time to discuss the team’s invention that might revolutionize how seniors communicate with distant relatives. Thank you, Dr. Glew for your great support.
 GU3 6983 Rehearsing the presentation for Team Igutech’s FLL Qualifier.
GU3 6928 Viper – Team Igutech’s robot.
GU3 6624 Science experiment: Which balloon pops: red or green) when hit with a red laser beam?
GU3 6298 Team Igutech visits Phoebe Home Senior Residence in Allentown, PA
GU3 6289 Team Igutech meets with Heintz to learn about daily challenges of seniors.
GU3 6286 At a physical therapy center to learn about mobility related problems.
 GU3 6618 Teamwork challenge: Who builds the tallest tower?
 GU3 6561  Perfect aim!
 GU3 6557  Adrian after succesfully completing a teamwork challenge.
 GU3 6554 Cole and his levitating spoon.
 GU3 6548  Macaroni challenge.
 GU3 6544 Can Michael get the cookie without using his hands?
 GU3 6489 Bike ride along the Lehigh River.
GU3 6462 Canoe trip to ‘our’ wilderness island.
GU3 6408 Wilderness camp-out on an island in the Lehigh River for team building.
GU3 6459 Adrian experiences vision impairment first hand.
 GU3 6282 At the Phoebe Home Senior Care Facility in Allentown, PA
 GU3 4395  Keving gains hands-on experience with the DaVinci Surgical robot.
GU3 4364 Team Igutech follows a dilivery robot at the Lehigh Valley Hospital
LVHN_01a [HG 6/2012] Team Igutech at the Lehigh Valley Hospital.
Dr. Martin Martino demonstrates the Davinci Surgical System.
 GU3 4386  The Igutechs at the Surgical Education Center of LHVN.
GU3 4373 Tilman and Henrik try out tools for minimally invasive surgery at the Lehigh Valley Hospital

 

 

FIRST Lego League Team 2012

Who are we?

Team Igutech is a group of nine 3th to 8th graders in the Lehigh Valley in Eastern Pennsylvania (USA) that share strong enthusiasm for robotics and programming and a lot of passion for just being together as a team. Igutech was founded in 2009 with a group of friends and has since then participated at three national robotics competitions and a number of local (Lehigh valley, PA) science events. The team is registered with the FIRST Lego League (FLL), a non-profit organization that conducts annual science and engineering competitions for worldwide more than 19,000 teams and 200,000 students age 9 through 14.

2012 is Igutech’s overall fourth season, however, for more than half of the team members this is their first or second year. The 2012 FLL season starts with the worldwide release of the new challenge ‘Senior Solutions’ on Aug 28 and then runs for 3-5 months depending on how far a team gets… This year, FLL teams research the question how they can improve the quality of life for senior citizens plus they develop an autonomous robot that competes against other team’s robots in a obstactle course.

The Igutechs were very fortunate to have extemely dedicated and creative team members with lots of different interests and skills. This enabled the team to successfully compete in local, regional and national FLL tournaments and win a number of recognitions. One of the highlights of the 2011 season was being invited to the North America Open Tournament at the Legoland resort in Carlbad, CA.

The Igutechs meet two to three times a week in the basement of the coach’s home and that’s also where they design Lego robots, do the programming, work on their science project or simply enjoy a good pillow fight. They also love to play ‘Foxtain Football’ in the backyard (their own invention) or ride the zipline. (they call it team building exercise…)

Team2012_Tilman_120907 TILMAN

I am so excited about the team. I really like inventing and creating – or to disassemble things to find out how they work. I love to design electronic circuits and build things out of wood and I recently got to use a milling machine for metal working. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday I go to Karate – I’m a Black belt, which makes me Sensei after 6-7 years. I can speak German fluently and go to Germany every year. Costa Rica is also one of my favorite destinations; I enjoy the lush rainforest and the wildlife. I also really love reading and computer programming (including but not limited to Lego NXT, Labview, and Java). I am 13 years old and my birthday is on 11-11th. I play the piano and I am in 8th grade at Orefield Middle School. My little brother is called Adrian and he is 8 years old; He also loves Legos and is now on the Igutech team! My role in the Igutech team is to be the robot team leader, which means that I have to coordinate everything and make sure that our robot is BEAST!!!

Team Leader
Team2012 Michael 121202 MICHAEL
  Creative Designs
Team2012_Sydney_120907 SYDNEY

Hi name is Sydney! This is my fourth year on team Igutech.  I have enjoyed participating with my team-mates to create presentations for the FLL research projects and have enjoyed all the great team-building activities. Last year’s Food Safety project was my favorite. We explored many factors of food contamination.  My interests are softball, painting, horseback riding and reading.  I also volunteer at a nonprofit animal rescue facility.  I have 3 pets a cat, bird, and dog. I am excited about this year’s team Igutech FLL activities.

 

Project
Team2012_Kevin_120907 KEVIN

My name is Kevin and I am very excited to be in the Igutech team this year. I am a programmer for Igutech with Tilman, Henrik, and Justin. I am in 6th grade and am in the gifted program at my school. I have an NXT at home and I love to build and program robots (mostly programming though). I enjoy learning about outer space and looking at planets with my dad’s telescope. I was even lucky enough to view the final space shuttle launch 2 summers ago with my family! I have a dog named Maggie and a brother and sister who are twins. I play the piano and the trumpet at school this year. I am in Orcestra, Jazz Band, and Marching Band at school.  I like riding my bike, riding my scooter, reading (especially The Maze Runner series), and going fishing, but most of all, I love to build and program with the team!

 

NXT Program Coordinator

Programmer
Team2012_Henrik_120907
 HENRIK
Hi, my name is Henrik and I am a 8th grader at Eyer Middle School. I am 13 years old and I was born in Germany. I love reading, drawing, and fun new adventures! I fluently speak German and I go to Germany twice a year. I don’t just do IguTech – I also swim in the winter and summer  and I play the piano. I also take German class with my best friend Tilman. I don’t have any siblings but I do have a scardy cat cat named Ashley. I enjoy doing creative things on the computer. While I am at IguTech meeting I work on programming our robot with mainly Tilman and Kevin. I think this season will be great!

Programmer
Team2012_Cole_120907
 COLE
Hi my name is Cole and I’m a 6th grader at Eyer middle
school, also I’m 11 years old. To add on to that, my birthday is on May 13. A few of the things that I like to do are swimming at the pool because I’m on the Macungie Bears swim team, and I like to play soccer and golf. My family has a big yard, almost 7 acres! The pets that I own on the land are 6 fish, 2 hermit crabs,1 cat, a dog, and 6 chickens. Another thing that I enjoy doing is jumping on my trampoline. I spend a lot of time
building legos, and like to ski and snowboard in the winter.

Tool Specialist

Builder
Team2012_Adrian_120907
 ADRIAN
Hi I’m Adrian and I’m 8 years old. My school is Schnecksville Elementary. I chose to be on the Igutech team because it looked like a lot of fun. I would like to learn how to program robots. I like to play soccer and drive my remote controlled car – FAST!  
Team2012_Stewart_120907
 STEWART
My name is Stewart. I am in 8th grade. I am a builder on Team IguTech.  I help the other builders build the robot and other attachments.  I enjoy being on the team because it’s fun and a challenge, that’s for sure!  I enjoy riding my electric scooter in my back yard.  I also enjoy playing airsoft, fishing, hunting and yard work. I have many pets – 2 dogs, 1 cat, 1 hamster, several reptiles and amphibians (leopard gecko, water frogs and fish). I like loud music like AC/DC.  I play piano and sing in the chorus at my school. I like camping, hiking and traveling. Last summer I got to travel to France and fished from the world’s 2nd oldest aqueduct bridge! Chief Builder
Team2012_Sahil_120907 SAHIL
Hi I’m Sahil. I’m 10 years old and I’m going to East Hills Middle School. My birthday is on August 31st. I’m new to the team and I’m hoping to be a programmer, but I also enjoy building. I play clarinet and violin for the school band and orchestra.  
Justin_110902-2 JUSTIN
  Assistant Coach

Team Igutech prepares for the North America Open

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Tilman after his team won 1st place Robot Performance at FLL Qualifier in Delaware

Team Igutech is invited to participate at the FLL North America Open tournament to be held from May 18-20, 2012 at the Legoland Resort in Carlsbad, CA. In regional Lego Robotics tournaments leading up to this event, the team scored first place at a Qualifier and 2nd place (out of 150 teams) at the FIRST State Championship in Delaware.

In preparation for Legoland, the team spent many weekends to tweak robot and programming. Also, they went out to share their enthusiam for robotics with the public at the Lehigh Valley Science Festival, where the team entertained 640 visitors throughout the day with hands-on robotics displays and info about the team and FIRST Lego League.

As materials, tournament fees and travel cost add up very quickly, the team is gladly accepting donations to offset some of the cost and enable all team members to participate at this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Please help us by sponsoring the team.

All donations are 100% tax deductible as Ingutech is registered as 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Any donation, no matter how small, will help us with our upcoming North-America Open FLL Tournament. All sponsors will be recognized on our website. In addition, we will send you a personalized plaque with a picture of the team for any donations of $100 or more. Thank you for your support!

Science Festival Lehigh Valley

 

GU3_3516 [April 14, 2012] More than 600 visitors of the first Lehigh Valley Science Festival stopped by FLL Team Igutech’s exhibits to enjoy hands-on activities like racing a Lego car, navigating the robot obstacle course, building a Senior bot, playing with Lego bricks ar learning about the FIRST Lego League and Team Igutech.
GU3_3518 Basket Raffle to support Lego Robotics activities
GU3_3541 Visitors learn about Lego NXT programing
GU3_3542 Lego ‘Free Play’
GU3_3549 The all-time favorite: Lego car racing with electronic timing system
GU3_3551 Visitors learn about NXT motors and sensors