A program of:

FIRST LEGO League

Wostmann & Associates, Inc. Inaugural First FIRST LEGO League Corporate Challenge

Who:

State of Alaska
Resource Data, Inc
Wostmann & Associates Inc
Alaska Pacific Bank

4 teams. 1 trophy. 1 year of bragging rights.

When: Sunday, June 20, 2010

Where: Baranof Hotel

What: Four teams each built and programmed a robot to compete in the same "missions" used for 2009 FIRST LEGO League tournaments for ages 9-14. Three qualifier rounds culminated in an all-or-nothing final match.

Why: FIRST LEGO League is a great program for kids that builds problem solving skills and a lot more! The adult league helped purchase supplies for 2010 school-year programs and sought to inspire more mentors to get involved.

Adults play with LEGOs in Juneau - Juneau Empire, June 27, 2010

Press Release

FIRST LEGO League Corporate Challenge

For the first time in Alaska, adults are venturing into territory previously occupied only by students: FIRST LEGO League competition.

For the past three years, the Juneau Economic Development Council's SpringBoard program has hosted FIRST competitions in Juneau for elementary and middle school students, and the program coordinated all FIRST programs in Alaska this past school year.

Until now, adults have been the onlookers and have volunteered their time to coach, referee and support the students' activities. But JEDC's Rebecca Parks, at the urging of Janice McLean, a programmer for the State, thought it would be fun to give adults a chance to compete with each other--and in a way with the students--by building, programming and operating robots made of Legos.

Juneau's inaugural FIRST LEGO League Corporate Challenge takes place on Sunday, June 20 (4 PM at the Baranof Hotel's Treadwell Room) with four teams in the competition: a State of Alaska team; Resource Data, Inc.; Wostmann & Associates, Inc.; and Alaska Pacific Bank. Over the past several weeks, each team has been busy programming its robot and practicing required elements. Pages of complex rules boil down to the basic point of the competition: program your robot to successfully complete as many tasks as possible on a prescribed course within two and a half minutes.

There will be three qualifying rounds on Sunday, culminating in a final match between the two teams with the highest point scores.

Apart from the intergenerational competition and bragging rights, FLL Corporate Challenge is also a fundraiser for FIRST programs in Alaska. At a cost of several hundred dollars, each team purchased its Lego MindStorm materials kit through SpringBoard and will in turn donate it back to the program following the Corporate Challenge to be used in student tournaments during the upcoming school year and beyond. FIRST LEGO League is an international program for kids ages 9-14 that builds skills in problem solving, teamwork, and much more.

Will Belknap, an Alaska OMB programmer, was inspired to participate by his 9-year-old son, Patrick. "He's really big into Lego and I am considering mentoring a Lego League team that he could be a part of," he said. "I have found this competition to be an extremely difficult challenge," he said, "because I tend to overthink things. "The challenges come in two forms: engineering the robot so it is capable of doing what you want and then using the software to make the robot do what you want."

Belknap said FLL Corporate Challenge has been a lot of fun to work on with his son, who serves as his technical advisor. "If I need to know how to get a piece to stick out from another piece, Patrick is my go-to guy," he said.

Parks hopes that Belknap and other participants in this first FLL Corporate Challenge will inspire new mentors to become involved.

FLL Corporate Challenge will be open to the public free of charge (although donations are invited to support the program) beginning at 4:00 Sunday afternoon, June 20.

Please direct questions to Rebecca Parks, STEM Education Specialist for JEDC's SpringBoard program and overall FIRST coordinator for Alaska: 907-523-2334 or rparks@jedc.org.