Lego robots enter the arena

Middle-school students in the Brooklyn area created robots and put them to the test in the 2010 FIRST Robotics Competition, held at NYU-Poly. Thirty-three hand-built Lego robots entered the arena, where they competed to execute certain missions, such as transporting items and avoiding impacts. This competition challenged students to demonstrate their ability to research, engineer, and build and program robots.

Some missions were executed flawlessly by some of the robots, while other robots fought valiantly, but fell to the challenges. After the event, all participators “left the arena feeling positive and saying they would compete again next year”.

Dr. Noel N. Kriftcher, one of three professors in charge of the NYU-Poly’s robotics program, oversaw the competition and saw opportunities for both middle-school and college students that would benefit everybody to gain some kind of experience from this competition.

“We are very proud to be able to offer the first Lego Robotics Competition on our campus again and even prouder for the opportunity to work as mentors with local students,” said Dr. Kriftcher. “We’ve introduce hundreds of young people to science and technology by having [current engineering] students help at these schools. It also benefits the [NYU engineering] teachers who get the opportunity to develop their skills in the area of robotics and instructional skills. Our engineering students benefit through providing lessons, and working with teachers as well as coaching the FIRST Lego League teams”.

The citywide winners will travel to the world championship in Atlanta, where competitors come from all over the globe.