By Sue Wambolt,Contributing Writer
Westborough/Southborough – Nilay McLaren, Stav Zeliger, Sriram Tolety and Tejas Maraliga have known each other since they were students together at Pincushion Hill Montessori School in Ashland. The boys, who are now in junior high and high school in Westborough and Southborough, are all robot enthusiasts and participants in the First Lego League (FLL). Five years ago, they formed the team “Angry Owls” and, in April, will represent Massachusetts at the FLL World Festival in Saint Louis, Mo.
FLL, an international competition organized by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) inspires students in engineering and technology fields, challenging them to design, construct and program their own intelligent inventions. Teams apply their knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts to design, build and program a robot using Lego Mindstorms technology and then compete on a table-top playing field. Also, as part of the competition, they research a real-world problem (such as food safety, recycling or energy) and are challenged to develop a solution.
On Dec. 5, the Angry Owls participated in the FLL regional qualifier, winning first place in the robot game. They won many other awards as well and qualified for the 15th annual RoboNautica Massachusetts State Championship which took place Dec. 19. There, the team won the championship award as well as the state championship which qualified them to represent Massachusetts at the World Festival in Saint Louis, Mo., in April. The World Festival, a celebration of the FLL season, is a celebration which showcases 108 first-place teams from around the world.
“I was really nervous during the award ceremony and we were all excited to when we won the championship,” recalled Tolety. “I can’t wait to go to the World Festival. I am sure we will all learn a lot and have fun!”