Students Take Robots to Big Stage

They came. They saw. They competed.

That is what five area teams did Saturday morning at the regional First Lego League competition at Lincoln High School. The competition, which focuses on building robots with Legos, is for children from ages 9 to 14.

This year's theme, "Body Forward," invited teams to explore the world of biomedical engineering to discover ways to repair injuries, fight diseases and maximize the human body's potential.

Hudtloff Middle School entered two teams, one of which was the area's highest placer, finishing fifth out of 28 teams. No local teams advanced to this weekend's state finals.

Even so, placing fifth was something Hudtloff Robotics Club advisor Will Leslie,  in his second year of taking students to the competition, couldn't have been happier about.

"I can honestly say that our kids did all the work, and they did a beautiful job," he said. "It was a breakthrough experience for them — for us — because I learned a lot, too."

Leslie said the four-person team's project focused on the impact of biotechnology on children.

"The kids did some really great programming," he said. "Just really, really top-notch quality. It was very clear programming to really define the robot's behavior."

Teams at the FLL competition were judged on teamwork, the design's effectiveness, the research project and presentation, and their robot's performance on a playing field.

Intel Computer Clubhouse coordinator Kurt Sample, who also took two teams to the competition, said his students didn't expect to win, but instead wanted to learn and have fun. He said they finished squarely in the middle of the pack. He was fine with that.

"We went to have a good time and to see what other teams were doing," he said. "We didn't expect to blow the doors off. It's not about the competition. We had a good time."

Sample said his team's lack of scripting could have cost them points — some teams had scripted their presentations complete with costumes.

"Our kids weren't like that," he said of the group of 14 home-schooled students. "They're much more free-spirited."

Sample said he was most proud of his students having done all of their own work.

"Our coaches weren't holding their hands through the whole thing," he said. "They had to come up with the presentation, come up with the programming. They know that they did it all, and they learned a lot."

One of the Clubhouse teams focused on the scenario of a bone transplant in a child where the bones can stimulate growth as the child grows. The other team worked on cancer and chemotherapy in a video game/simulation with nano-robots.

"The good thing about the First Lego League is that it encourages kids to program a robot with a purpose and to look beyond the robotics," Sample said. "They had to show their technological prowess with their robots, too, so it keeps kids thinking.

While Hudtloff's teams only compete in FLL events, the Clubhouse kids are now moving on to build a robot for the VEX Robotics Competition in March in Sandy, Ore.

"We run robotics all year round," Sample said. "They're playing with Lego robots all the time."

The area's other team was from Woodbrook Middle School.