The OmegaBots have been invited to join various teams from across Mexico, Canada, and the US to compete at the Legoland North American Open in Carlsbad, California on May 19-21.

Tanay Kothari from E.H. Greene Intermediate, Nikhil Kohli, from Sycamore Junior High, Eshika Kohli, 10, from SHS, Prattyush Giriraj and Neev Gupta from Mason Middle School came together to form this neighborhood FIRST Lego League (FLL) team.

“I joined FLL to be more connected with my friends. Along the way, I learned various things ranging from communication skills to behind the scenes on programming,” Nikhil Kohli said.

FLL consists of three competition categories, core values, robot, and project, all of which fall under a major umbrella topic. Last year’s topic was Trash Trek followed by this year’s topic of Animal Allies.

Individuals competing are required to create a project which will be environmentally friendly to help the organisms live a better life at the same time help humans in order to create a mutual alliance.

The OmegaBots have created a Mealworm Composting Farm which uses the unique capability of a mealworm to consume styrofoam and decrease the amount of styrofoam in the environment.

Additionally, each team in competition designs and programs a robot to complete as many missions as possible within the two minutes 30 seconds time limit on the board. Therefore, it is essential for each team to work together efficiently to complete each task.

Last year, the team placed first at regionals, continued to district, and then state. This is the team’s second year of competition in FLL, and their first time advancing to nationals.

“At the time they announced the winners, our team didn’t believe it. They announced our team number from last year, so we didn’t think we had won. The announcer then stated the team name and our team was shocked!” Nikhil Kohli said.

The OmegaBots will be improving upon their research for the project and will be working on their robot design and efficiency in order to prepare for their competition in May.

“FLL has really changed the way I work and think with other people. It has inspired me to do more for our world,” Gupta said.