Robotics challenge for Northern Ireland schools

An IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology) product story

Edited by the Processingtalk editorial team Nov 25, 2008

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) was in a partnership responsible for bringing the First Lego League, an interactive robotics challenge for young people, to Northern Ireland.

The challenge involved pupils from 18 secondary schools in Northern Ireland taking on more than 100,000 budding scientists across the globe.

It was held at W5 in the Odyssey, Belfast, where the budding scientists designed, built and programmed a robot that could perform a series of tasks linked to a research presentation on global climate change.

First Lego League aims to help develop tomorrow's innovators by introducing children aged nine to 16 to the fun of solving real-world problems by applying maths, science and technology.

A number of local organisations sponsored teams, including FG Wilson (engineering), ESB International, NIE, Randox Laboratories , Seagate, Thales Air Defence , Cable and Wireless, Queen's University Belfast and the University of Ulster.

As well as the IET, the partnership of organisations involved included Queen's University, Invest NI, SAP Research (SAP) and W5.