Bulacan students to represent PHL in FLL World Festival

DYCI winning team.  The Blue Ocean 10.

BOCAUE, Bulacan—A 10-high school students robotics team here will represent the country in the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (First) Lego League Food Factor World Festival to be held in St. Louis, Missouri this April.

This came after they ruled the First Lego League (FLL) Philippines held at the Quezon City Interactive Science Center over the weekend, besting 150 other students from 15 participating schools across the country.

Dubbed as the Blue Ocean 10, the Dr. Yanga Colleges Inc., (DYCI) team is composed of Trisha Carmela Santos, Gladys Leigh  Malana, Dave Adrian Bien, Keight Dela Cruz, Lady Alein Goleng, Tim Fabillon, Ramikurt Del Prado, Jules Martin Agsaoay, Jonathan Alejandro, Michelle Alcanar.

All of them are students of the DYCI High School department which produced the 2010 World Robot Olympiad (WRO) champions, and bagged fourth place in the same competitions last year.

“It’s a surprise.  We never though our team will make it to the FLL World Championships,” said Michael Yanga, the director and principal of DYCI High School.

He said that it is an honor to win the FLL Philippines’ first competition that earned them a ticket to the FLL Food Factor World Festival that will be held at the America’s Center and Edward Jones Dome Convention Plaza in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

The Food Factor World Festival will be participated by competitors from 60 countries from April 25 to 28.

“I’m very proud of our students who have shown that we are really globally competitive and Bulakenyos are truly prime movers of technology,” Yanga said,

The DYCI Blue Ocean 10 team ruled the FLL Philippines’ championship through the students’ invention called Meat’s Anti-Germ Inspection Solution (Magis) v.2.0, a machine that could help people  from eating a contaminated meat especially pork.

Beryl Cruz, the head coach of the DYCI Blue Ocean 10 said that Magis v.2.0, which the team worked on for two months, also has the capacity to detect “botcha”. 

Cruz is also the head coach of DYCI Robotics team that ruled the WRO held at the SM Convention Center in 2010; and placed fourth in the WRO held at the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last November.

Cruz explained that the FLL Philippines  is harder than the WRO competitions noting that it deals with real world problems like the “botcha” scare that hit Bulacan last year.

He said that participants in the FLL Philippines created their invention based on the “food factor,” a theme given by FIRST that is based on their core values.

The FLL Philippines was organized by Mylene Abiva of the First in Educational Learning Trends Always (FELTA) founded in 1966 by Felicito and Teresita Abiva, with the aim of providing the academe with instructional materials that answers the needs of the times.  (Dino Balabo)