Local Computer Scientist Ali Rafieymehr has been getting young Hudson residents in town excited about programming robotics over the past year.
He started last year with two FIRST LEGO League Explore teams and has tried to continue spurring interest in robotics throughout the year.
Last week, Rafieymehr hosted a robotics event at the Rodgers Memorial Library where a number of students attended to learn about programming. The program focused on programming XRP Robots, an eXperiential Robotics Platform.
Rafieymehr stated, “I have been offering some robotics events/programs just to keep the interest there for the kids.” Last year, when developing the FIRST LEGO League team, Rafieymehr had more than enough participants. Rafieymehr said, “By the policy of FIRST organization, FIRST LEGO League, Explore, FLL teams can only be two to six students (second to fourth grades). After I reached out to families about starting a team, we had seven students registered. I had two options. One option was to eliminate one student from the team or start the second team. I couldn’t disappoint a student. Therefore, I decided to start two teams. We had a total of 10 students on two teams. Both teams have the name “Future Techies” but with different team numbers (31034 and 32297).
Rafieymehr originally started the program to get his grandson interested in computer science, since then he has donated a lot of time and money into the effort. In addition to his donations, a great supporter and a neighbor of his provided financial support and the parents have been very generous and supportive.
He said, “Every parent donated money especially to cover the costs needed to start the second team. Parents and myself also donated money to cover the costs of rental space at Sensory Seekers in Hudson for our meetings.”
The two rookie teams in the FIRST LEGO League N.H. Festival 2024 that was held in December at the Hollis Brookline High School. Both teams did a great job and more importantly enjoyed the Festival showing their work and also seeing other teams’ work.
Leading up to the festival, the teams met once a week from September to December and in the final two weeks, they met twice each week to get ready for the Festival.
The teams will meet again when the 2025-26 season is announced in August, but until then, he hopes to continue the enthusiasm about robotics by providing robotics opportunity sessions like the one held during winter break.
To learn more about the program visit: https://techfuturetoday.com/