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January 18, 2007

Middle Schoolers to Compete at UMBC in LEGO Robotics Event on Saturday, Jan. 20

CONTACT:
Mike Lurie

Office: 410-455-6380
Cellphone: 443-695-0262
mlurie@umbc.edu

Jan. 18, 2007

BALTIMORE -- More than 500 middle-school youth and their families are expected to participate in the FIRST LEGO League State Tournament, a competition that builds students’ ability to design and program LEGO robots, on Saturday, Jan. 20 from 9:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.

UMBC is providing faculty and staff support, coordinated by Dr. Anne Spence, assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

Teams of 9-to-14-year-olds must build LEGO robots that can perform functions such as removing pizza molecules from a paper plate.

Judges will evaluate the teams on their ability to program robots to achieve tasks relevant to nanotechnology, a scientific frontier focused on achieving advances in medicine and computers through research into particles 100,000 times smaller than the thickness of a single strand of hair.

The match finals, which begin at 3:30 p.m., will determine a winner.

The tournament is free and open to the public. Registration/check-in for participating teams opens at 8 a.m.

For details about FIRST LEGO League, see: www.usfirst.org/4vol/FLLresourcectr/index.html

Posted by mlurie at January 18, 2007 11:32 AM