Team 3105 or Team Lagablab shows off their trophies after winning the Highest Rookie Seed Award and Rookie All-Star Award in the FIRST Robotics Competition Hawaii Regional. With the team are PSHS Main Campus Director Dr. Helen Caintic (left) and Science Education Institute Director and FRC Hawaii Regional Philippine contingent head Dr. Ester B. Ogena (2nd from left). (DOST-SEI website)

"Team Lagablab," the lone Filipino team to the FIRST Robotics Competition in Honolulu, Hawaii will continue waving the Filipino flag as they advance to the competition's World Championships in Atlanta, Georgia next month.

"Team Lagablab" of the Philippine Science High School (PSHS) Main Campus was awarded the Rookie All Star Award at the conclusion of the NASA/BAE Systems FIRST in Hawaii Regional Robotics Competition, which concluded last March 28, at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Stan Sheriff Center.

The Rookie All-Star Award, according to the FIRST website, "celebrates a rookie team exemplifying a young but strong partnership effort, as well as implementing the mission of FIRST to inspire students to learn more about science and technology."

The PSHS team, composed of of 32 junior students, eight mentors from the University of the Philippines and De La Salle University and three coaches from PSHS, will join five other teams from the regional competition - four from Hawaii and one from San Jose, California - who will move on to the International FIRST Robotics Championships in Atlanta.

The Blue Alliance from Hawaii (composed of teams from Maui High School, McKinley High School and Moanalua High School) was the overall winer of the competition. Waialua High School won the Chairman's Award, while SIA Tech from San Jose, California won the Engineering Inspiration Award.

The Philippine team, whose robot was named "Larry Labuyo," was also awarded the Highest Rookie Seed Award, which "celebrates the highest seeded rookie team at the conclusion of the qualifying rounds."

The Philippine team was registered as Team 3105 also known as “Philippine Team Lagablab.” Lagablab is the Filipino term for flame.

Win shows Pinoys can do it

Team captain Catherine Angcangco said they are very thankful for all those who supported them during the competition, as well as those who prayed for their success.

Dr. Ester Ogena, Director of the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI), said that they are happy that the Filipino has once again proven their talent and skills in any science filed.

"We have found in Hawaii a treasure trove of talents and I am sure that there is more to tap in the Philippines," she said in a statement Tuesday.

Ogena expressed jubilation over the Philippine team's triumph in the FRC Hawaii Regional which truly gave the country another morale booster.

"We have truly shown to the world that we can do it and we can make it big in international competitions, especially in robotics," she said.

Ogena added that the Philippines is participating in the FRC to entice the students to venture into careers in robotics.

"We want our students to have the motivation and inspiration to become scientists and engineers by making them experience what it is like to be in the real world. We hope that through the FRC we would be able to give them an insight to the scientific community," she added.

The team arrived in Manila on Monday evening aboard Continental Airlines Flight CS 933 from Honolulu.

'Life-changing, career molding'

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a US-based organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1989, aimed at inspiring young people to engage in science and technology.

This year’s challenge, “Lunacy”, is inspired by the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11.

"Just as NASA scientists landed a man on the moon and returned him safely to earth in 1969, so too will these young people go on and explore new frontiers and develop breakthrough technologies that change the world," Kamen was quoted as saying at the competiton's website, http://robotics.hawaii.gov/first.

In the Lunacy game, robots are designed to pick up 9" game balls and score them in trailers hitched to their opponents’ robots for points during a 2 minute and 15 second match. Additional points are awarded for scoring a special game ball, the Super Cell, in the opponents' trailers during the last 20 seconds of the match. Lunacy is played on a low-friction floor, which means teams must contend with a surface designed to simulate driving on the moon.

According to the website, the FIRST Robotics Competition is an exciting, multinational competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way.

Over 42,000 high-school-aged young people on over 1,686 teams participate in 41 regional events. In all, teams come from Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Turkey, the U.K. and every U.S. state. In the Hawaii round, teams from Hawaii, mainland US, Mexico, and the Philippines participated.

"The program is a life-changing, career-molding experience—and a lot of fun," it added.

The 2009 FIRST Championship will be held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, April 16-18.