Patch Whiz Kids of the Week—Team Robokidz

Students: Ronak Pai, Dhruv Shah, Gino Prasad, Roshan Verma and Sajiv Shah from Saratoga’s Redwood Middle and Argonaut Elementary School.

Grade: fifth-, sixth- and seventh graders, ages 9-11.

Accomplishment:

Team Robokidz students won the Best Project award at the FIRST Lego League Robotics Qualifier competition Nov. 23 in Menlo Park.

FIRST, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is a nonprofit organization helping young people discover and develop a passion for science, engineering, technology and math.

The competition theme was “Nature’s Fury” where robotics teams were challenged to come up with creative solutions to help people during natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes.

Team Robokidz participated in the qualifier competition and they had to program their robot to autonomously overcome several natural disaster-related challenges on a simulated missions table, said proud dad Neil Prasad.

The Robokidz spoke to several residents and first responders in the New York region and found that lack of power and specifically, the ability to charge mobile phones for communicating was a big challenge during natural disasters, said Prasad.

Team Robokidz came up with a creative “Tramp-O-Charge” concept and developed a prototype of a system that includes a trampoline which charges phones and other appliances in the event of a power outage, Prasad explained.

The team won Best Project award for their innovative idea to generate electricity while having fun during and after natural disasters.

Team Robokidz has now qualified for the Northern California Regional competition to be held end of January 2014 in Morgan Hill, San Jose.

Team coach Raj Pai indicated the kids are overjoyed by their win and he is excited to be working with them.

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