School kids from across London competed to solve the world’s ‘Trash’ problems as part of a First Lego League tournament hosted by the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science.
Seven teams developed and presented solutions to real world waste issues on January 16 and then battled it out for one of the coveted Lego League trophies as they built and programmed Lego robots to complete recycling missions.
The teams consisted of Year seven and eight pupils from five schools including St Paul’s Way Trust in Tower Hamlets, Colfe’s School in Greenwich, Greenford High School in Ealing, two teams from Sutton Grammar School in Sutton and also Woodbridge School in Suffolk. In total there were more than 90 participants.
The ‘Trash’ challenge theme asked pupils to think about problems faced in waste management and to then present and design a solution. Ideas included special bins for electro-chemical batteries in the city of London, recycling bins for mobile electronics, used toy exchange shops in schools and special boxes of expired food (still edible) to reduce food waste.
After presenting their project ideas, robot design and group workings to a panel of QMUL academics the teams then set their Lego robots to complete tasks on a competition table including sorting recyclable items from non-recyclable items, composting and clearing plastic bags.
When all tasks were finished it was the ‘Rubbish Runners’ team, the only independent team that competed, which won the overall Champions' Award. Other trophies awarded included the Robot Games highest score to St Paul's Way Trust, winner of Core Values to Sutton Grammar School, Best Project to Teckksupport from Greenford High School and Most Promising Robot to Robostormers from Colfe’s School.
Kok Ho Huen, from QMUL’s School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, said: “The day started and ended with lots of energy and dedication by both visitors and organisers. Students conducted themselves in the spirit of the Lego League with everybody enjoying themselves and competing fairly and gracefully - in some cases even helping each other. In essence, it was a complete success.”
The overall event is operated in the UK by the IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology).
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