Students from across the continent participated in the robotics competition hosted by the North American FIRST Lego League Open. Over 70 teams from 33 states including Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico took part in the competition.
The teams displayed their robotic creations at the Lego Showplace Theater. The project phase involved researching a specific body part, system or function and then finding a novel solution to safeguard, heal, improve or repair. The robot phase of the challenge required teams to perform specific tasks and complete missions to address some current medical problems using sensor and robotics technology.
Robotic creations were developed for performing tasks such as pacemaker installation, rapid blood screening, bone repair and other critical medical activities. The winning teams were selected based on several factors such as joint effort, professionalism, robot functioning, project presentation, programming, and technical design.
The students from Aviara used robotic technology to develop equipment for helping Alzheimer's patients to take their medication at the appropriate time. The Bear Valley students researched the connection sports-related injuries and illness such as the Lou Gehrig’s disease.