Three Livingston Robotics Club teams are among 48 teams statewide competing today in the New Jersey FIRST LEGO League State Tournament, held this year in Flanders.

 The teams will compete, based in part, on how well their robots can do things like identify bad cells or put a stent into a vein.

A FIRST LEGO League competition, which is for kids ages 9-14, is much like a sporting event; there's music and cheering and jumping up and down. With each round, the teams get judged and win points. There are categories Robot Performance, Teamwork, Robot Design, and Project. The Champion's award is for the team that does well in all the categories and displays "gracious professionalism." The Champion's award is the highest award in each competition event.  

"Some teams do it for recreation and some are more competitive," said Surasit Nithikasem, Livington Robotics Club secretary, "At this level it's very competitive."

Not to mention difficult.

Each September, The FIRST LEGO League announces a challenge and teams work to come up with solutions that involve robotics and LEGOS, within a a research project and a robotic game.

This year's challenge, titled "Body Forward," is based on biomedical engineering. The objective of the research project is to "discover innovative ways to repair injuries, overcome genetic predispositions, and maximize the body's potential, with the intended purpose of leading happier and healthier lives." 

The robot game also has challenges based in medicine. In 2½ minutes, the robots must perform a variety of tasks, including inserting a stent into a vein, putting a cast to a patient arm, and identifying bad cells.

All three teams in the state competition qualified last month on a day of intense competition at several New Jersey FIRST LEGO League Qualifiers. The teams that win the first and the second place Champion's Award at the NJ State Championship will be nominated for a consideration to participate in the event called FLL World Festival in St. Louis in April.

"For Livingston Robotics Club, we have been very active in this FIRST LEGO League  program, said Nithikasem. "One of our teams went to the  world level in 2008. We have quite a lot of amazing people around this area who are interested in this."

The Livingston Robotics Club is a non-profit organization with 12 teams, 14 coaches and 54 members from Livingston, Millburn, South Orange, East Hanover, Kearny, West Orange, Short Hills, Basking Ridge, Southampton and Springfield.

"(The club) encourages children from K-12 to have interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects though participation in robotics programs," Nithikasem said. "Throughout the last couple of years we have brought home many prizes to Livingston." 

Past Challenges were based on topics such as nanotechnology, climate, quality of life for the disabled, and transportation..

The three teams competing in this challenge today are Landrias, Exit 5 Robotics and Supreme Machine. Landrias is made up of girls in Grades 7-9 from Livingston. Exit 5 is another all-girls team made up of fourth graders from Harrison Elementary (which is off I-280's exit 5). Supreme Machine is a team made up of four enthusiastic boys in Grades 7 and 8 from Livingston, South Orange and Millburn.

 "It's all a parent-based organization. ."We are now a member organization under Healthy Community, Healthy Youth of Livingston as well," he said. "That makes us eligible for to receive sponsorships and donations."

After the challenge is announced in September, teams start practicing two or three times a week, leading up to various competitions and ultimately the state tournament.

Parents work with kids to help them figure out the challenge. But after that, it's all up to the kids.

"Sometimes the thinking is a little out there. But some of the imagination and things that they come up with is amazing," Nithikasem said. The level of thinking with these kids is high. We try to bridge back to what's possible and how it can actually be implemented."