Perse roboteers build up to Lego League challenge
Excitement was building when Perse roboteers took part in the FIRST Lego League Challenge at Cambridge University.
Year 7 members of the Perse Lego Robotics Club formed two teams to enter the tournament, which aimed to encourage youngsters to apply their STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) skills in a practical way.
Inspired by a recent trip to Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, they designed and programmed Lego Education robots to compete against teams from other schools, while gaining invaluable experience in coding and overcoming engineering challenges.
One of the Perse teams, featuring Vasilis Van den Bergh, Sylvan Amads, Millie Underwood, Lekhana Katuri, George Crosby and Zac Clark, won the innovation project award after presenting their excellent research on an ingenious solution to an energy problem.
Lekhana Katuri shared her thoughts on taking part in the FIRST Lego League Challenge.
“It all started when my friend, Millie, convinced me to join her at our school’s Lego Robotics club and since then, I’ve fallen in love with robotics.
“When Dr Chen, our mentor, asked us if we wanted to participate in the FIRST Lego League, I just couldn’t miss this opportunity.
“The competition included many skills such as coding, building, designing, presenting, researching, and, most importantly, teamwork.
“The robot game required us to program our robot to complete a series of tasks on a map. We split up to get as much done as possible, with Millie and I helping with half of the tasks.
“We got three tries at the robot game, and we did well, even with several blunders here and there, and got a consistent score each time.
“We then worked for hours on the innovation project, a research presentation that involved attempting to find a solution to a current energy-related problem.
“There was amazing progress during each of our sessions and we won a Lego trophy for the best innovation project. I am proud of the team and thank Dr Chen for making it all possible.”
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