Inspiring minds of the future

On Friday 3rd March, seven teams of students aged 6-16 visited the site to take part in one of the regional events for the FIRST® LEGO® League CHALLENGE tournament. In this year’s ‘superpowered’ energy theme competition, students are challenged to design, build and programme robots to compete against the clock to win as many points on a battle board as possible, as well as present solutions to real-world problems.

Each team had built their own LEGO robot which they had coded to carry out a number of energy-themed missions over a two-and-a-half-minute run and brought them to the competition to compete against each other for the highest score. The teams were also scored on an innovation project based on a real-world problem that the team has identified. This was presented to a panel of Bosch judges who were tasked with assessing each team against the FIRST® LEGO® League judging rubrics to demonstrate their core values of discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork, and fun. They were also judged on their robot design and innovation projects based on their ability to problem solve through iterations of ideas and designs which they presented to the judges.

After a day of competitive spirit and ‘gracious professionalism’ – one of the FIRST® LEGO® League core values that encourages good sportsmanship and professionalism in all competitors, each team was presented with an award to recognise their strengths and achievements from the day. The team that won the Champions award will go through to the Harrogate national final in April, alongside the winners from our Bosch hosted Coventry and York tournaments, as well as the 47 tournaments hosted across the UK this year.

After a day of competitive spirit and ‘gracious professionalism’ – one of the FIRST® LEGO® League core values that encourages good sportsmanship and professionalism in all competitors, each team was presented with an award to recognise their strengths and achievements from the day. The team that won the Champions award will go through to the Harrogate national final in April, alongside the winners from our Bosch hosted Coventry and York tournaments, as well as the 47 tournaments hosted across the UK this year.

At the Denham tournament we had a great group of students who put their all into competing. Meet each team’s robot, including the winners, below!

RealTechBots – ‘Agent-R’ – winners of the Champions Award

The RealTechBots were the winners of the Champions Award and will be going through to the national final in Harrogate. Alongside their robot’s outstanding performance, the team also presented a well-researched Innovation Project using a model with working circuit boards.

“Our robot is big and bulky, looks like a factory on wheels and sometimes has a mind of its own.”

Nower Hill High School – winners of the Innovation Project Award

This team at Nower Hill High school in Pinner was supported by Bosch STEM ambassadors to get to this year’s competition, having not competed before. Barrie Flemming, STEM project lead, Bosch UK has been working with Nower Hill in this academic year to support the school with getting their students engaged in STEM. On this project, Bosch STEM ambassadors supported the school with getting started on their robot programming and thinking about their innovation project.

The team were recognised for their fantastic Innovation Project which tackled the problem of improving nuclear reactors. The team had carried out detailed research and demonstrated their solution through a LEGO model prototype.

“Our robot was built with many modular attachments to complete several tasks all together, so it was more efficient.”

The Minifigs – ‘Bob the Robot’ – winners of the Robot Performance Award

The Minifigs were a team from a local STEM club who had some of the youngest participants of the tournament. The judges were impressed by their enthusiasm and teamwork, as well as the prototype they presented alongside their robot design.

“Our robot has two scoops to hold the energy units. We also have a roof rack to launch the dinosaur across the mat. Additionally, we have an add-on to hold the energy units.”

Watford Grammar School Team 1 – winners of the Judges Invented For Life Award

Watford Grammar School brought along two teams to the event and Team 1 were awarded the Judges ‘Invented For Life’ award which was given to a team who demonstrated values and skills in line with Bosch’s ‘Invented for Life’ slogan. The team were rewarded for their intelligent and analytical approach to the challenges as well as their simple but effective design.

“Our robot has to do lots of different tasks, and it worked well. We used different attachments but lowered it down to one for simplicity”

Watford Grammar School Team 2 – ‘Ted’ – winners of the Core Value Award

Watford Grammar’s second team did a great job at demonstrating the Core Values throughout the event. The judges noted that the team did well to not let challenges faze them and the whole team got involved in the coding of the robots.

“Our robot has different modular arms, so he is adaptable for different jobs. He likes chocolate.”

Kemdroids: Solar – ‘Wall-E’ – winners of the Judges Sustainable Futures Award

Kemdroids: Solar were one of two teams entered from Kemsing Primary School in Kent and were commended by their judges for their confidence in their Innovation Project presentation and for identifying how the everyday activity of watching TV can become more sustainable.

“Our robot looks very square if you don’t have all our attachments on and we need them to do the missions easier.”

Kemdroids: Wind – ‘Wind-E’ – winners of the Robot Design Award

The second team from Kemsing Primary School were the Kemdroids: Wind team who the judges thought did a great job at thinking through the design of their robot by planning their mission well and identifying limitations of their robot.

“Our robot has lots of different moving and attachable parts that make it solve the missions easier and we love her.”