Local FIRST Lego League (FLL) Team Himalayan Hackers won the Champion’s Award

Local FIRST Lego League (FLL) Team Himalayan Hackers won the Champion’s Award at the State Competition on Saturday, January 19, 2019, held at Iowa State University.

Team Himalayan Hackers is an FLL team organized by the Iowa Nepalese Association. The team is comprised of nine students, grades fourth through eighth. On the team is Johnston student Shreyas Shrestha (2025). Also on the team are Waukee students Rohan Sah, Shubham Sah, Aanavi Rajbhandary, Anusha Adhikari, Bishesh Pokharel, Anisha Prajapati, and Ojaswi Pathak. The team has been in formation since 2016. Originating members that are still on the team are Rohan Sah, Shubham Sah, and Shreyas Shrestha. The team is managed by Sanjay Shrestha, coached by Suraj Amatya and Pujan Lama, and mentored by Johnston student Shreya Shrestha (2020) and Waukee student Apeksha Adhikari.

The Himalayan Hackers participated at the Iowa FLL State Championship amongst 60 teams from all around the state. The team started their season in late August tasked with completing robot missions and identifying a human physical or social problem faced during long-duration space exploration all while displaying FIRST’s core values. The teams met twice a week, putting in 5+ hours a week. The team qualified for the State competition through the Ottumwa Regional held on December 1st, 2018. They were also awarded the Robot Design Award at the Ottumwa Regional.

The team has been invited to participate in the Into Orbit World Festival in conjunction with the FIRST Championship in Detroit, Michigan from April 24-27. They will be competing against teams from 50+ countries around the world.

FIRST is an international non-profit organization whose mission is, “to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering, and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.”

More information about FIRST can be found at https://www.firstinspires.org/

Works Cited:

“Vision and Mission.” FIRST, Made with FlippingBook, 22 Jan. 2019