Robotics competition will bring 39 teams to Cincinnati State
December 2, 2009
Youngsters from 39 school and neighborhood teams in southwestern Ohio will soon be powering up their LEGO robots to see which has the best “Smart Moves.’’
The students will participate Saturday, Dec. 12 and Sunday, Dec. 13 in the 2009 iSPACE FIRST LEGO League Regional Tournament, which will be hosted by Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.
It will be the largest FIRST LEGO League (FLL) qualifying event in Ohio this year, and is part of an international competition involving 146,000 children aged 9 to 14 in more than 50 countries. Winning teams will have the opportunity to advance to championship tournaments and eventually to the FLL World Festival April 15-17, 2010 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
The tournament at Cincinnati State will also feature a Junior FIRST LEGO League Expo for 6 to 9 year olds.
“This is just a wonderful opportunity for young people to apply science and engineering skills in an exciting way,’’ said Linda Neenan, executive director of iSPACE, a Cincinnati-based non-profit organization that provides educational programming involving science, technology, engineering and math.
Every year organizers of the worldwide FLL competition come up with a new challenge. Last year’s was built around the theme of climate change. This year’s challenge involves transportation, and is headlined “Smart Move.’’
Teams – with help and supervision from adults – have 12 weeks to meet a two-part challenge:
- In the project phase of the Smart Move challenge, teams identify a problem with the way people, animals, information, or things travel in their community, create an innovative solution, and share it outside the team.
- In the robot game part of the challenge, teams confront some of today’s transportation safety and efficiency problems and apply robotics, sensor technology and fresh thinking to solve them. Missions include efficiency planning, object avoidance, passenger transport, hill climbing and crash tests. Judges will measure how many of these tasks the robot completes in two and a half minutes.
The iSPACE FLL regional tournament at Cincinnati State is a two-day event.
On Saturday, Dec. 12, teams will convene for project, teamwork and robot design evaluations and for practice sessions with their robots. (These events are not open to the public, but media coverage is welcome. A schedule of events is attached.)
Here is what the judges will be evaluating on Dec. 12:
- Robot Design. Teams must demonstrate their proficiency and the strategic planning that went into building and programming their robot. Judges look for clean and efficient programming and design, teamwork, team management skills, and depth of knowledge.
- Project. Teams must describe transportation problems in their community and the solutions they propose, demonstrating how they did their research and what sources they used.
- Teamwork. Judges are on the lookout for evidence of enthusiasm, spirit, partnership, respect for teammates and support of other teams.
On Sunday, Dec. 13, the teams will square off for robot table competitions. These events are free and open to the public – and exciting. They will culminate in an “Alliance Table Competition’’ at 4 p.m. in which the top teams will join forces and match up against other coalitions.
For more information, please contact Linda Neenan, executive director of iSPACE, Inc., at 513.612.5788 (o) or 513.720.4772 (c) or email.
For background information about FIRST LEGO League, please visit http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/fll/default.aspx?id=970
About FIRST®
Inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. With the support of many of the world’s most well-known companies, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) and FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) for high-school students, FIRST LEGO® League (FLL) for children 9-14 years old, and Junior FIRST LEGO® League (Jr.FLL) for 6 to 9 year-olds.
About the LEGO Group
LEGO Systems Inc. (LSI) is the Americas (North America and Latin America) division of the LEGO Group, a privately-held firm based in Billund, Denmark. For more information, visit www.LEGO.com
About iSPACE
iSPACE (www.ispacescience.org) is a non-profit organization that provides educational programs designed to prepare students for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Based at the campus of Scarlet Oaks Career Center in Sharonville, iSPACE has coordinated the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) regional robotics tournament for Cincinnati since 2002 and founded FLL in Kentucky in 2003 Additionally, iSPACE is the state affiliate partner for FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), a robotics competition for high school students. iSPACE’s programming also includes class visits, after-school programs, family events, camps and student/teacher workshops.
Participating Teams
