Teams — the Aqua Bots, Baby Belugas, Lobsters, and more — gathered at UND’s Betty Engelstad Sioux Center last winter to challenge their minds in the First Lego League Junior Robots Tournament, sponsored and organized by the School of Engineering and Mines.  Nineteen teams of 9- to 14-year-old students from across North Dakota and South Dakota competed.  Thompson, N.D., Public School earned the competition’s top award, but everyone walked away feeling like winners.

“It’s really fun,” said Alex Butland, a sixth grader from Northridge Elementary in Bismarck.  “I like it.  It’s sort of challenging sometimes.  You have to get the robot to do some complicated stuff.”

Designed to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people, First Lego League (FLL) challenges them to solve real-world problems using robotics.  The teams use their imagination to create unique, autonomous robots from Lego bricks, sensors, motors, and gears.  Each robot is designed to complete a series of missions related to the competition.

The theme of this year’s competition was “Ocean Odyssey.”  The FLL teams were challenged to take action to ensure the health, productivity, and diversity of the world’s oceans for future generations.  Among this year’s missions were freeing a dolphin, preventing pollution, locating a sunken ship, recovering valuables, and repairing an underwater line.  Past competitions have tackled challenges related to global warming, space exploration, urban planning, and volcanic eruptions.

Teams are judged in five areas: robot performance, technical mechanics of the robot’s construction, research and presentation, teamwork, and gracious professionalism.

Contestants learned which challenges they’d tackle in mid-September.  Most got right to work, meeting weekly to research strategies.  They also had to design, build, program, and test their robots. 

Thompson coach Darwin Potter said his team initially struggled with frustration and lack of communication.  In time, however, they came together as a team and each member offered a different strength.  While some really enjoyed the science and engineering aspects of the competition, others gravitated toward research and writing a paper to be presented during the tournament.

“You have to be well-rounded to win,” Potter said. 

The growth of the team and the confidence each student gained made all the time and work worth it, he added.  “That’s what’s been fun to see,” Potter said.

Butland’s team tackled how noise from ocean rigs and Navy vessels upsets the lives of ocean animals and what can be done to fix the problem.  While Butland’s team spent time fixing robotic malfunctions, others found the going easier.  The Lobsters of Lewis and Clark School from Plaza/Makoti, N.D., chose dealing with oil spills as their project.  Their robot’s main mission involved freeing a dolphin, replacing an oil line, covering a pump, and pushing crates back to the base where they belonged.

“They were able to do that their first try,” assistant coach Brenda Brown said.

With their robots and presentations ready to go, area FLL teams met to compete in a sports-like tournament.  Teams earned scores based on the number and difficulty of missions completed within the allotted time.

Students also delivered presentations, which tournament officials said seem to grow more elaborate every year.  Some teams even made movies.

Helping to ensure that the whole tournament ran smoothly were dozens of UND engineering students and graduates.  Tim Lofgren, who graduated with an electrical engineering degree in May 2006, was helping at the tournament for the second year.  Lofgren said he enjoys seeing the amazing ideas teams generate.  Volunteer Mike Meholensky, a research engineer and UND grad, agrees.

“I have a master’s degree, and I don’t think I could have come up with some of the ideas they’ve come up with,” he observed.

According to Meholensky, between 50 and 60 UND students are involved in the tournament at different points.  Preparations for the event began in October, he said, and meetings became more frequent as the tournament drew nearer.  UND students helped the tournament succeed by accomplishing everything from set-up to serving as referees.

As teams took turns showing off their robots’ abilities at the tournament, it quickly became clear that winning wasn’t the most important thing.  While students jumped up and down and urged their robots on, they also rooted for other teams and applauded their accomplishments.  Team members said they felt the pressure of the time clock, but also had fun.  Coaches gave students pats on their backs, and teams worked together to make last-minute adjustments.  Competitors smiled often, whether cheering on their robots during competition or  hanging around with their teammates during breaks in the action.

Jeremy Houser, a sixth grader from Miller Elementary in Bismarck, said he’d tell other students to participate in the tournament because of all the fun he’d had.  And even though his team didn’t finish high in the standings, he loved every minute of the competition.

“We have an awesome team,” he said.