Lego’s RescueBots contest builds imaginations at CIT

They may not be RoboCop or R2-D2, but 80 students and their vocal fans from 20 schools will be hoping that their designs will win the Lego Robot Competition tonight.

“RescueBots” is the theme of this year’s contest, which is promoted by the Cork Electronics Industry Association and takes place at Cork Institute of Technology. Second-year, second-level students are challenged to make their robots navigate a virtual “underwater” maze to locate a vessel in distress. The robots that complete the task in the fastest time will be the winners.

While Deirdre de Bhailís of CEIA wouldn’t quite say that robots were taking over schools, artificial intelligence is definitely infiltrating the classrooms, judging by the interest in the competition.

“In reality, in some schools, many more students work on the competition and four represent the school on the night,” she said. “For example, in Douglas Community School they now have a robotics club with 40 students, so there is competition for team places and all contribute to the overall design, including those from previous years passing on their experience.”

Winners receive the CEIA Perpetual Cup, along with Logitech prizes for their school. In addition, they and the runners-up go forward to the First Lego League, which is run by Robotics Ireland and part of a global competition.

“Irish teams have a great track record on the international stage,” said Ms de Bhailís. “Last year, the Irish winners went to the British finals and wiped the floor with the British teams, scoring maximum points, with a clean sweep of the prizes.”

“They then went onto the finals in the US and took a global prize. Because they performed so well, Ireland now has a direct route through to the global finals and no longer has to go through Britain to qualify.”

The CEIA’s Schools Robotics Competition final takes place at The Nexus, CIT, on Thursday, Feb 9, from 5.30pm to 8.30pm and is open to the public.