Building relationships and robots with Lego at the Cambridge FIRST LEGO League regional tournament
Creativity and building relationships – and robots out of Lego – were the order of the day at the Cambridge FIRST LEGO League regional tournament.
The event took place last Tuesday (January 17) at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering on Trumpington Street, with Cambourne Electronics and Robotics Club (CERC) being named the overall winners.
Almost 150 schoolchildren from across East Anglia gathered to compete at the tournament, which was delivered by the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) and sponsored by Qualcomm.
Throughout the course of the day, teams went head-to-head as their robots were tasked with completing as many missions as possible on a Lego playing field, in a time limit of just two minutes 30 seconds.
The challenge was split into four key parts: the robot game, robot design, core values, and innovation project. Teams were encouraged to demonstrate the FIRST signature set of core values which celebrate discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork, and fun.
This year’s core value winners were Team Brick Brains from Colchester Royal Grammar School. To compete in the robot game, teams built and programmed autonomous robots using a LEGO SPIKE Prime kit. The team that won best robot design were the Code Ninjas. The robot performance winner award was presented to Bedford Modern School.
As overall winners CERC will progress to the national final in Harrogate in April. They were presented with the FIRST LEGO League Champions Award.
Venkat Kommi, a team mentor and coach at CERC, said that his winning team – aged 9 to 11 – had a great day. “From the beginning, everyone had fun and when coming into Cambridge, they made a song and they were singing all the time,” he said.
“They showed full enthusiasm, not just for robotics, and it was just really good fun for everyone. They really liked the whole experience. They made good friends and they talked to lots of people, and they encouraged other children.”
Venkat noted that this year, he took a completely new team to the event, having previously competed. He stressed that CERC is open to everyone.
“All the different communities come together and we use our voluntary time to teach robotics and engage with people all around the Cambridge area,” he said. “We try to encourage robotics and electronics skills in our children.”
Each year, teams are set the challenge to conduct an innovation project, in which they have to identify a problem based on the annual theme and design an innovative solution to the problem. This year, students showed solutions on improving how energy can be stored, used, and transferred. The innovation award went to Team Potato from Perse Upper School in Cambridge.
The event was hosted by speaker, TV presenter and STEM ambassador Dallas Campbell, who has featured on The Gadget Show and Bang Goes the Theory. He said: “It has been a great, action-packed day and impressive to hear all
the children presenting their ideas so enthusiastically. Not only is the day highly educational it’s also really fun and great to see all the hard work in action.”
[Read more: Teams of children come together for the launch of the First Lego League at North Cambridge Academy (NCA), Cambridgeshire pupils take part in Lego tournament at University of Cambridge]
Designed to encourage young people to take an interest in real-world issues and develop their technology skills, FIRST LEGO League helps students to engage in their education and nurtures important teamwork, problem solving and life skills.
This year’s teams battled under the theme of Superpowered, drawing on their creativity and research skills to tackle the theme of energy. Other schools taking part included Trumpington Meadows Primary School and St Martin’s School in Essex.
