Inventioneers make it a threepeat!

Londonderry

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December 11, 2008

At Saturday's New Hampshire State FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Tournament at Nashua South High School, The Inventioneers won the top prize of the day — the Champion's Award. This is the third consecutive time the Londonderry-based team has earned the much-coveted top honor.

The Inventioneers outperformed a field of 51 teams and earned the high score of the day in the LEGO robot portion of the competition.

They were top seeded in two of the three rounds of the robot finals and ultimately took second place in robot performance, in addition to the champion's trophy.

The team wowed the judges with a creative presentation about their algae biofuel project, featuring their patent-pending algae oil extraction system. The judges were impressed with the scope and future plans for this project, and the team's commitment to be part of the trend away from food-source biofuels like corn.

"Two hundred million people around the world are being affected by the focus on biofuel production from food crops," said one Inventioneer, Kate Balcom, 10.

Her sister Paige, 14, pointed out that "algae are a second-generation (non-food) biofuel source and can make a huge change in the world."

"If things don't change, in less than 20 years, 600 million people will be chronically hungry, because of the use of these crops for biofuel," she said.

The team's robot, dubbed the largest robot ever by the event's emcee, generated lots of attention. One of the referees asked if they had used the entire allotted robot size allowance, and Sarah Heimlich, 14, laughed and said, "I think we have about an inch of space in the back we haven't used yet."

Many teams came to gape at the giant structure at the practice tables — many taking photos and videos of the Inventioneers' robot to review later with their own teams.

Achieving the top table score was another highlight for the team, which had experienced a few robot setbacks in past years.

What's next for the Inventioneers?

"We are organizing a Junior FLL event in January, where our own JFLL team can share its project along with eight to 10 other teams," said Emily Balcom, 12.

"And we are getting ready to start a laboratory program up at UNH focusing on algae research."

As winners of the 2008 N.H. State FLL tournament, they have been invited to compete at the FIRST LEGO League United States Open Championship on May 9, 2009 at Wright State University in Ohio.

"This program has changed our lives, and because of that, we can change the world," Jaiden Evarts, 11, stated emphatically. To find out more about FLL, visit to www.firstlegoleague.org. To reach the Inventioneers, e-mail them at TheInventioneers@yahoo.com.