Aspiring engineers from all over Wisconsin gathered recently to compete in Madison College’s annual Lego robotics event.

The competition started with the competitors, ages 8-14, enduring a series of three interviews. In the first interview they essentially showcased their ‘Lego robots’ and gave the judges an idea of what they can do physically. The second interview consisted of a robot design assessment. Each team put their robot on display for the judges and completed a full design assessment. The third interview was a ‘core values’ evaluation; where participants were judged on how they worked as a team and how they got along with each other.

The event was then moved to the Truax gymnasium where the robots were actually put to the test.  The robots were judged by a group of qualified referees on their performance in doing tasks like opening doors and putting a ball in a goal. The competition was point-based and split into three rounds.  The judges awarded the win to the team with the highest score from the three rounds.

Raven Lewis, 10, from the winning team ‘Supernovas’ had quite a bit to say about the event.

“I liked working with the robot a lot and doing the programming. The hardest part was sometimes we would program it correctly and it would work and fail and work and fail,” she said.

Brent Lewis, Raven’s dad and team mentor, said the children learned a great deal through the event.

“Trial and error is a word we definitely taught the kids,” he said.

In the end though, it seemed that everyone came out a winner. Although not every team was awarded prizes for highest points, almost every team received an award for their efforts. It also looked like a great stepping-stone for children with an interest in engineering.