The DCC was flooded with kids in funny costumes, interesting Lego robot designs, and lots of bubbles. Last Saturday, RPI hosted the FIRST Lego League tournament in the DCC building from 9 am to 3 pm. It was an exciting day for the middle school kids who participated in the contest. Together with General Electric, the Center for Initiatives in Pre-College Education provided the students with an opportunity to test their engineering and teamwork skills. In all, 16 teams from area junior high schools participated in the event.
The event opened with a few words of compliment and admiration toward the competitors from RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson, co-founder of National Instruments Jefferey L. Kodosy ’70, and Mayor of Troy Harry Tutunjian. This was followed by the Robot Competition, which consisted of a number of different objectives each team must perform in under 2.5 minutes, with the team that completes the most objectives declared the winner. The objectives the teams had to meet were all related to the main theme of the day, which was “Ocean Odyssey.” These objectives included rescuing a Lego dolphin or restoring the connection to an oil pipeline. All of these were performed using programmable Lego robots that moved along the playing field made to look like the oceans of the world. Along with the Robot competitions, each team had to research a topic related to the theme of “Ocean Odyssey.”
Heather Hudspeth, a physicist for GE Global Research and event director of the FLL tournament, said that the purpose of this tournament was to “expose kids to the possibilities in science and technology that are fun and they can do,” and that the winner of the competition would go to Atlanta, Ga., to compete on the international level.
Lester Rubenfeld, a professor of mathematical science and director of the Center for Initiatives in Pre-College Education, explained that the CIPCE was pushing for Lego activities in local schools to encourage interest in math and science in the minds of students who might otherwise not choose such a field of study. He also explained that GE came to RPI and asked it to be a sponsor of the FLL’s regional competition, which is how RPI came to be involved with FLL.
Rubenfeld mentioned that this competition was a great way to “stimulate interest in the fields of science and technology and to get the kids to work as a team on research topics.” He also noted that the RPI students loved to join in on the fun saying the event was a great “opportunity to link in some student activities like the ... graphics club.”
