Cincinnati State hosts LEGO robotics tournament

Cincinnati State played host to the FIRST Lego League Regional Robotics Tournament on Saturday, December 7^th.
 
The FIRST Lego League was founded by health care technologist and Segway inventor Dean Kamen as a way of introducing middle school students (ages 9-14) to real-world engineering challenges by building LEGO-based robots to complete tasks on a thematic playing surface. It is designed to encourage creativity and build interest in engineering, math and sciences.
 
Students had been working since the end of August to design, build and program their LEGO Mindstorms robots to accomplish missions on a thematic LEGO playing field. In addition to the robot game (which took place in the afternoon), students spent the morning being judged on their robot design. Students came from all walks of life and represented several area schools including Walnut Hills High School, St. Williams Middle School, Loveland Middle School, Monfort Heights and more.
 
“We felt that the FIRST organization does a tremendous job in introducing students to career opportunities in the fields of design, engineering and technology, so we wanted to show our support by hosting this event,” says Josh Haldeman, program chair of the Industrial Design Technology (IDT) track at Cincinnati State.
 
This year marked the third consecutive year that Cincinnati State hosted the competition. Cincinnati State also sponsors the high school level FIRST Robotics Competition Queen City Regional, which is hosted at Xavier University each spring.
 
“By hosting this competition, we’ve discovered that we have helped to encourage more schools, organizations, parents and leaders to form a team and get involved,” Haldeman says. “The number of teams in Cincinnati has doubled since we started hosting this event. The students who are on a team get the chance to see real-world applications of design, science, technology, engineering and math, and therefore, are better engaged in the classroom.”

By Mike Sarason