A Poway-based robotics team with seven students ages 9 to 14 placed third out of 80 international teams in the 2022 First Lego League Razorback Open Invitational.
Team MC2 traveled to the University of Arkansas for the competition after winning both the local qualifiers and Southern California regional championship.
The team is comprised of students of local charter schools in the Poway and Escondido area.
A second San Diego-based team, Nevergreen of Carlsbad, was in attendance along with 80 teams from throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, Spain, Israel, South Korea and Japan.
Team Fsingenium from Spain came in first place, with D++ of Israel in second.
The competition had four elements: innovation project, robot performance game, robot design, and core values. Team MC2’s innovation project was to solve cargo problems. They created and operated a working system aimed at the reduction of plastic waste and the shipping associated with plastic dumping.
Additionally, the team designed, built and programmed a robot to solve challenges within a 2:30-minute table competition. They collaborated with other teams and mentored a fellow competitor earlier in the season.
When deciding on their innovation project, the team learned much about recycling.
“We conducted a survey and learned the majority of people don’t realize that only 9% of our recycled materials are actually recycled,” MC2 member Jillian Smith, 12. “The attempts currently being made to recycle have a large financial and environmental impact without achieving the intended goal.”
The team’s innovation system shreds plastic bottles into strips that are fed through an extruder, which melts them into strands that can be used as filament in 3D printers. The working model went through multiple evolutions before they had a portable model with consistent results.
The model’s components are now available through the open-source 3D printing design website, Thingiverse. The team uses their YouTube channel to guide teachers, First Lego League viewers, and fellow 3D printing enthusiasts on how to recreate their working project at home or school.
“Our team felt that we had an ethical responsibility to work toward a solution that could revolutionize a portion of cargo trade by closing the consumption loop,” team member Bryce McCague, 14, said. “By using existing 3D printing technology, our hope is to keep the business of producing and recycling plastic out of cargo.”
MC2 member said the adoption of its system could save $5.6 billion in annual shipping of plastic refuse, alleviate cargo transport by 1.4 million ship trips and reduce environmental impacts by one billion gallons of oil and 44 million cubic yards of landfill space.
In announcing the champion award category, FIRST officials noted that, “This award celebrates teams that embody the First Lego Challenge experience by fully embracing our core values while achieving excellence in innovation, robot performance, robot design and the innovation project.” Referencing Team MC2, they went on to add, “Their enthusiasm is catching.”
When asked what they gained from this experience, team members said the Razorback Invitational was much more than a robotics competition.
“One of the biggest impacts this competition had on us was that it gave us the chance to meet a diverse community of people with our interests,” said 11-year-old Eric McCague. “We all learned so much from each other and left with new friends from all over the world.”
This emphasis on core values and collaboration was celebrated through the pairing of teams who then shared a presentation table and competed in a special challenge against other alliances. Team MC2 and their alliance team Tech Mech in 3D, from Mississippi, placed fourth in the robot game alliance challenge.
Team MC2 is a new team that began their project in August of 2021 and have since spent an average of 10 hours a week meeting in person or virtually. Additionally, team members did individual research, programming and other tasks independently.
They were mentored by members of Poway High School’s robotics team, Team Spyder, and received advice and guidance from EDCO Escondido, 3D Printing Solutions, Precious Plastics, The Classical Academy, Boeing Aerospace and 3D HQ. Financial and material assistance was provided by Financial Cornerstone Inc., AMP-Optics, the City of Poway, EDCO Escondido, Mainstream Bar & Grill and Marco Polo Independent BMW & Mini Service.
More information on MC2, its project and team members, and the FIRST LEGO League Challenge can be found at the team’s website: https://sites.google.com/view/fll-robotics-teammc2. Interested corporate sponsors for next season can reach out to the Team MC2’s head coach at TeamMC2Robotics@gmail.com.
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Angela Brandt is a staff writer for the Poway News Chieftain and Rancho Bernardo News Journal.
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