Farmington Robotics Team Recognized With Regional Award

The Farmington High School Robotics team has been doing great things for years. Each year the team of dedicated students puts in hundreds of hours building their robot, writing essays and coordinating outreach. At the same time, the team continues hosting Dream FIRST children’s events to inspire a love of engineering in the next generation.  

And each year the team goes to competitions, proud of its work and proud of its members. They sit respectfully and cheer for the winners, knowing that in robotics, winning is not the goal but rather, teamwork, collaboration and gracious professionalism.  

That’s why this year, at the First Robotics Competition Connecticut Regional, the victory took them by surprise. This year the team, the 2nd Law Enforcers, was awarded the Engineering and Inspiration Award, which is given to a team that balances both a great robot and community outreach.  

“I was kind of zoning out and didn’t expect anything but I heard Dream FIRST and then I heard someone screaming and it was me,” remembered Yashee Munshi, a senior member of the team. “I just assumed we’re finally being recognized for the work we’ve been doing with Dream FIRST, inspiring children.”  

Dream FIRST, the team’s signature program, was created by the Enforcers in 2004 for children ages 3 to 10 to spark an interest in science, technology, engineering, and math. The team wrote a children’s book, then another, about their robot Gizmo and his human friends. They developed activities to bring to children’s events and brought them out into the community.  

But the Enforcers had been doing it for years with mixed reactions from judges.  

This year, it clicked, maybe because the team did a little bit more.  

“We personally mentored First Lego League teams this year and held an FLL expo,” explained team captain Giselle Koo.  

“Hawkeye was a really good robot, designed really well and the drivers did a good job as well,” she said. “We had a great record after days of competition.”  

She too was surprised to win the Engineering and Inspiration Award.  

“During build season we had a lot of anxiety about essays and I kept saying ‘calm down, it’s not about winning’ and we went into the competition saying, ‘we did what we did,’” Koo said.  

Not stressing about winning allowed the team to enjoy the process, share their robot and talk with other teams.  

“Some teams have seven people and some, like ours, have 40-50. Some have a huge machine shop and others build in their dad’s basement,” Koo said.  

“Coopertition” is the spirit of FIRST and allows all teams to work together and help each other but occasionally being recognized was special to the Farmington team.  

“It was probably the best three days of my life so far,” said junior Mark Sims. “When we won the EI Award on the last day, it was just unbelievable. I was crying and our robot did – well, one of our mentors said it was the best robot in seven years.”  

The accomplishment has given the team new energy as they head into a different phase of their season, mostly holding Dream FIRST events and fundraising events. The CASCIAC will also host a robotics competition for the first time this year and the team is looking forward to that, as well as its annual participation in Relay For Life.  

See a full calendar of the Enforcers’ upcoming events here and learn more about the team here.