Reethi Padmanabhan and Varun Devraj were among the contestants in two different teams ("Techno Titans" and "Blubots") that have qualified to participate in Missouri FLL Qualifier to be held on December 4th at the St. Louis Community College in West Florissant.  These two teams comprised of several students from Rockwood School District in the FIRST Lego League (FLL) robotics competition held on Sunday, November 20, 2011 at the St. Charles Community College Campus. 

Apart from the qualification to compete at the state level, Techno Titans won the "Champions Award" that goes to the top team in all the categories in the competition and the Blubots won the "Inspiration Award" for being an exemplary role model with their enthusiasm.  Both teams shared and motivated many other kids through community outreach activities such as presenting their project and Robot at the St. Louis Science Center.

Each team was graded on the following four categories and the cumulative score determined the qualifiers: Robot design, Core Value, Project, and Robot mission. 

The Techno Titans project dealt with detecting the quality of milk in a container based on its acid content.  The team identified an innovative and cost-effective solution by incorporating a simple indicator under the cap of the milk carton that would help the consumer identify the level of acidity in it.  The topic chosen by the Blubots for their project was related to freshness of produce that goes into the food offered for lunch to the kids of Rockwood School District.  They enjoyed working on this topic since it had a direct impact on their school life.