FIRST Lego League to be held at the UAB
On Saturday 8 February, the School of Engineering will be hosting one of the qualifying competitions of the FIRST Lego League at the Bellaterra campus. The 32 participating teams will face the challenge of evolution and changes in today's cities by offering creative solutions with robots equipped with the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® technology.
In this year's edition, the challenge is entitled CITY SHAPER, in which 32 teams will observe how buildings and cities grow, evolve and change. They will then have to come up with innovative ideas to further the building of spaces in which to live and work with the help of current technologies.
Modern cities pose great challenges such as transport options and accessibility which the teams will have to overcome by following what is known as the FIRST® values, which are: inclusion, discovery, teamwork, innovation, fun and impact.
While abiding by the aforementioned values, the teams will participate in the Robot Game, For two and a half minutes, the previously programmed robots will display their abilities by moving and interacting with objects with the aim of completing the largest amount of missions possible in a creative manner.
In addition, teams will be asked to give a five-minute presentation of their Innovation Project, where they will design a solution for a building, public space or community. Following the teamwork values of the FIRST Lego League, each project will be shared with the rest of groups in order to improve them by including everyone's contributions.
An Educational Competition
In 1989, inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a not-for-profit foundation whose objective was to inspire youths interested in science and technology through innovative programmes. In 1998, FIRST and the Lego Group joined efforts to create the FIRST Lego League. Since 2006, the Lego League is organised in Spain by the Scientia Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation aiming to promote scientific and technological vocations.
The FIRST Lego League competition is carried out with teams of 3 to 10 students aged 10 to 16, who must solve different challenges related to the topic of the edition by using the LEGO robots. To solve the problems they must think like true engineers and scientists. The goal is that these young students investigate and solve current scientific challenges and apply mathematical and scientific concepts to the real world by developing the skills needed to work in teams, solve problems and communicate clearly.
The FIRST Lego League (FLL) sponsor at the UAB is Roche, while the FLL in Spain is sponsored by Robotix and Dragados.
More information: FIRST Lego League