One of our members helped out at the IET First LEGO League regional tournament today, hosted by the university.
It encourages STEM development in primary and secondary school children through the programming of LEGO robots to complete certain tasks on a specially created themed map, within a tight time limit. The theme changes annually, with this years focusing on the production, use and disposal of water. This also means that the groups have to research, identify and present novel ideas on how to use this precious resource sustainably.
Like any engineering and STEM related task, teams had to priortise solutions with risk, with riskier and harder tasks worth more points. Summed up by Ed, our member who helped, "it was excellent to see such a variety of future engineers developing their teamwork, communication and time management skills to overcome problems. From speaking to team members, it was great to hear them applying their knowledge from the project to other situations in their lives".
Pictures here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1401158123346497&type=1&l=0c7502e482