Bristol’s University of the West of England (UWE) is preparing to host the UK final of the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) this week – a global science and technology competition with over 250,000 young people taking part each year.

“We are proud as a university to be involved with this great initiative which does much to engage young people across the nation in technology”

 

Having gone through the rounds and reached the UK finals, 400 9-16 year olds will descend on UWE’s Exhibition and Conference Centre on Sunday to battle it out with the theme of ‘Animal Allies’ – identifying a real-world problem with the way humans interact with animals, investigating it and creating an innovative solution with help from a robot made of LEGO.

Although advanced robotics and computer programming skills are expected to impress judges, excellent team work and communication skills are also the name of the game and the icing on the cake for a generation it is hoped will become the UK’s next scientists and engineers.

You can find out more about the challenge and its aims in the video below:

Jane Berry, Acting Head of the Computer Science and Creative Technologies Department at UWE Bristol, said: “We are proud as a university to be involved with this great initiative, which does much to engage young people across the nation in technology.”

With the ultimate prize being a place at the World final in the USA, top participants have the chance to be awarded a series of prizes from UWE Bristol’s Computer Science and Creative Technologies department, one of which includes a tour of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory – based at Frenchay campus.

Find out more about the challenge on the FIRST LEGO League website or follow them on Twitter here: @FLLUK. You can also stay up-to-date with other events being held at UWE by following them on Twitter here: @UWEEvents.

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