Lego League: From Another Perspective
When he was in sixth grade back in Lebanon, Mortada Kamareddine was already beginning to develop the STEM skills that brought him to a degree in Automotive Engineering and a role as a Software Test and Simulation Engineer at Bosch. That year, he took his childhood passion for robotics a step further by joining his school’s robotics team. With this small school team, he began competing in FIRST LEGO League. He participated in four seasons of the tournament, gaining new skills and learning from mistakes each year, even becoming the Arab National runner ups in 8th grade.
Mortada credits his experiences participating in the competition for developing key skills that he uses professionally today. The main thing that he took away from the experience was problem solving skills, which were important in developing the robot design and software. “All these engineering concepts which I found myself learning in my first year of university, I had already had prior experience with them, not only from the technical side but from the actual implementation,” he says.
Now, years on from his first experience of the competition, Mortada is a volunteer at Bosch’s LEGO League events and able to help students through the same experience. Knowing firsthand how daunting the competition can be, Mortada hopes that his experiences help him provide encouragement to the students. Giving students the support to keep trying and not give up helps them perform better and more confidently.
The competition has changed since Mortada first competed. He has observed that now there is a stronger focus on furthering students’ knowledge of how all the elements work and come together rather than just the performance of the robot.
25% of the overall achievable score is based on the teams Innovation Project, where the team present their project to a panel of judges. This makes the competition more accommodating for a variety of skill sets and interests, not purely focused on the robot engineering, design concepts and programming.
The importance of companies like Bosch getting involved in these STEM outreach programmes is vital to their success. It allows children to gain real insight about what a working in STEM can offer and the specific skills they need to kickstart their careers. On the flipside, it allows companies to recruit people with practical experience as well as technical knowledge in the future.
“Meeting employees who were once in their shoes, hearing their stories, and seeing them now working for these companies in roles they might aspire to, will motivate the children to push forward”.
Mortada is just one of many volunteers at Bosch who have interacted with the FIRST LEGO League programme and come away with a deeper understanding of how STEM programmes like this can make a real impact.
The tournament kicks off again in October. Bosch will be hosting events across our sites and we have a number of roles to fill to run these events successfully. If you would like to get involved with the tournament this year, contact Barrie Flemming