By Lauren Talley
For The State News
IM-Sports Circle buzzed with students and adults carrying out "missions" using LEGO robots early Saturday morning during the Spartan FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League Challenge.
Elementary and middle school students from Mid-Michigan tried to best each other in specific tasks, such as lifting a toy truck by using LEGO robots they built themselves.
"The motivation (for the competition) is very simple," said Satish Udpa, dean of the College of Engineering. "We want young people to get excited about science and engineering."
A grant of $33,000 from Shell Oil Co. made it possible for the MSU College of Engineering to sponsor 10 teams for this event. The students competed in building fully autonomous robots with identical supply kits provided by LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System. Judges and referees from Shell Oil Co. and faculty and students from the College of Engineering volunteered to help run the event.
Teams, which varied in size, were judged in four categories: robot performance, research presentation, interview and overall teamwork. Teams tested their robot's skills through theme-related tasks such as representing the sense of smell, which involved the robot moving LEGO molecules from a paper pizza toward the nose of a paper person on the performance grid — proving to be difficult for some teams.
"I was scared in the practice round; the robot wasn't doing the correct, proper things," said Rasondra Evans, a sixth grader at Gardner Middle School in Lansing. "It kept falling over."
Alex Katarzynski, a sixth grader at Charyl Stockwell Academy said the competition was tough for his team because they had never participated in this competition before.
"Since we're a rookie team, (we're) probably missing a lot of the missions," he said, referring to the tasks the robots had to perform.
Although the students worried about their rank in the competition, many still had fun.
"Even though the first round wasn't so good, we're having a lot of fun," Evans said. Her team, the LEGO Ladies, took every opportunity to dance to the music played throughout the competition.
Since the competition was introduced mid-September, students put in after school and weekend hours to create and perfect their robots.
Drew Kim, director of recruiting for K-12 outreach for the engineering college, said he thought everyone was having fun, regardless of what the teams ranked.
"No matter who wins or loses, I don't think there's a loser here — everyone is having fun," Kim said.
Every team received a trophy, with each team member receiving a medal during the ending ceremony. Six of the 15 teams, including the Lego Ladies, will advance to the state championship, where roughly 60 teams will compete for the state title. The state championship will be held Dec. 16 at Carman-Ainsworth Middle School in Flint, Mich.
