Bay View Robotics Team Wins Third Place Award at World Competition

East Providence, RI – St. Mary Academy Robotics Team (S.M.A.R.T. 2.0) recently represented the State of Rhode Island at the FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) World Championship in St. Louis, Missouri. The two-time state champions beat out 108 teams from 33 countries to place third for Inspiration in the Core Values Award.

“I’ve been coaching the Bay View teams for 9 years and working collaboratively is always very natural for our girls. However, this team took that a step further and brought their enthusiasm and creativity to all parts of the competition - this was obviously recognized by the judges. They are truly an inspiration to all of our students.” - Linda Grasso, Bay View Technology teacher

Bay View Academy students have been recognized at the international level for their academic excellence and innovation, placing third for Inspiration in the Core Values Award at the FIRST® LEGO® League World Championship. This award celebrates a team that is empowered by its FIRST® LEGO® League experience and displays extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit.

The Festival, which was held in St. Louis, Missouri from April 26 - April 29, welcomed more than 15,000 students (ages 6-18) for four days of spirited competition. Nearly 700 teams from 33 countries around the world competed in four different FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) programs, all which inspire young people to be science and technology leaders. S.M.A.R.T. 2.0 competed against 108 teams in their division.

This was the second time the all-girls S.M.A.R.T. (St. Mary Academy Robotics Team) team from Bay View has won the FLL championship competition to represent Rhode Island, with a prior appearance in 2011. As state champions, the ten students on the Bay View S.M.A.R.T 2.0 team also won individual $20,000 scholarships to Roger Williams University.

S.M.A.R.T. started as an after school program at the Academy with one team of ten students. Interest soon outgrew the team limit of ten, so Bay View’s program added another team, S.M.A.R.T. 2.0, and the robotics class evolved as part of the Middle School elective curriculum.
The competition has three parts: the Robot Game, the Project, and Core Values. In the Robot Game, students write code in order to prompt an autonomous robot to accomplish a specific set of tasks. For the Project, students identify a problem, research, and present a solution to judges. Throughout the Robot Game and the Project presentation, teams are judged based on their alignment with FLL Core Values of inspiration, teamwork and gracious professionalism.

Each year, FLL announces an annual challenge to teams, which engages them in authentic scientific research and hands on design using the LEGO MINDSTORM technologies. This season, more than 255,000 students participated in the project with the theme of “Animal Allies.”

For S.M.A.R.T. 2.0’s Project, they set about enhancing GPS for blind users, by outfitting seeing eye dogs with a vest that tells them which direction to turn. The idea is that the vests have three sensors, one on the left, one of the right, and one on the back towards the tail. The project presentation also included a book they created, “Once Upon a Tail,” in which a blind princess is granted a dog trained with one of these vests. To round out the fairy “tail,” a dog named “Sir Ruffington” serves as the knight in shining armor.

As S.M.A.R.T and S.M.A.R.T. 2.0 continue to show the aptitude and interest of Bay View Middle School students in robotics, curriculum and extracurricular offerings are expanding in the Lower and Upper School levels, too. Bee S.M.A.R.T. Jr., a third grade after school robotics program, began this fall as part of FIRST® LEGO® League, Jr. In the Upper School, two new Advanced Placement Computer Science classes are being added to the course offerings.

According to the FIRST website, firstinspires.org, “The four-day event, attended by more than 30,000 people, came down to a heart-pounding conclusion Saturday night in front of tens of thousands of cheering fans.” S.M.A.R.T. 2.0 was thrilled to be brought on stage and honored for their achievement in front of peers, educators and parents from around the world.

The following students from East Providence competed as S.M.A.R.T. 2.0 and were invited to the World Festival, under the direction of their coach, Linda Grasso (Exeter).

Margaret Mahoney (East Providence)
Ava Troino (East Providence)