Al-Huda Robotics Team Advances to State Finals

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alhuda-lego-robot The Al-Huda School Boys Robotics Team took part in their first ever Lego robotics tournament on Saturday, January 17, 2015, ranking in 11th place out of 26 other more experienced teams, including some from elite schools in the greater Washington DC region.

The competition was part of the national FIRST Lego League competition. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a national non-profit 501-c(3) organization founded in 1989 whose mission is to “inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology.”

With only a few months of preparation, the Al-Huda School team developed an autonomous mobile robot using the Lego Mindstorms programmable Lego kits. The tournament involved robots attempting a variety of “missions” on a table like arena. Missions were known in advance, so teams had to prepare and program their robots to complete as many missions as possible in the alloted time. Missions included opening a small toy door, putting a small plastic ball in a toy soccer net, and retrieving and placing various objects around the arena.

The Al-Huda School team's middle ranking did not qualify them to advance to the FIRST Maryland State championship to be held on Saturday, February 28, 2015 at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). However, in a pleasant surprise for a dozen supporters who attended the final ceremony, FIRST presented the “Core Values” award to the Al-Huda team which automatically advanced them to the FIRST Maryland state championship. The Core Values award is given to the team “whose members best demonstrate extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit, exceptional partnership, the utmost respect for their own teammates, and support and encouragement of fellow teams … they demonstrate confidence, energy, strong problem solving skills, and great group dynamics.”

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Only five teams from the January 17 qualifying event in Howard County advanced to the Maryland state championship.

“This is the first time I've had a first year team make it to the state [competition] and I'm also pleased that as a Muslim team we won the Core Values [award] which illustrates everything we're supposed to have in our characters, alhumdulillah I'm very pleased,” said coach Arif Abdul-Kareem, who meets with the team after school and on weekends in preparation for the tournament.

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