24 June 2020
Earlier this month the Armstrong Creek Robotics room was turned into a TV Studio with numerous screens, video cameras and microphones to enable SEMATICS 102 to participate in the FLL Australian Virtual Invitational. The top 20 teams from across Australia, who had qualified to compete internationally this year, were invited to participate in this two-day event. This virtual event is the only event globally endorsed by FIRST and Lego Education as a trial and feedback is being sought by participating teams. This format will be used should COVID-19 restrictions mean face-to-face competitions are not possible. A new judging platform was also trialled for the competition.
Leading up to the competition the team met via ZOOM twice weekly on Monday and Friday evenings over several weeks to prepare and practise their presentations and finalise their documentation. A sub-group met to fine-tune programming for the robot games one Sunday afternoon with the whole group only meeting once before the competition started.
The team worked well on the day presenting their project, robot design and core values to five global judges based around the world.
SEMATICS 102 was awarded the “Rising All Star Award”. This award celebrates a team the judges noticed and expect great things from in the future and represents a very high achievement across all four components.
The coach and mentor would like to thank the parents who provided support to the team from a distance by delivering food, and sourcing and operating technology over the two days.
