Building Anticipation: Inaugural Lego League Tournament Coming to DCC

Release date: January 14, 2008

Poughkeepsie, N.Y. – Dutchess Community College will host the region’s first ever Lego League Robotics competition for children ages 6-14 on Feb. 2 beginning at 8:30 a.m. in DCC’s Falcon Hall.

              The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego League Robotics competition is made up of teams of children charged with using Legos to build small robots that will complete specific energy conservation-themed missions.

              The senior teams consist of children ages 9-14, while children ages 6-9 comprise the junior teams. Students are furnished with a large bag of Legos, assembly plans for the robots and plans for the mission the robot is expected to perform. Each team then gets three chances to maneuver their robot through its task. Teams are judged in four areas; their robot’s performance, the design of the robot, teamwork and a research presentation in which students perform an energy audit on a real building and report their results. Teams have a chance to become champs in each of the four categories, and one team who has the highest average score over the four, will be the Grand Champion.

              Some of the teams will be comprised of students gathered through IBM, one team will consist of home-schooled students and the rest will come from school districts such as Arlington, Wappingers and Pine Plains.

              Competitive teams from local tournaments, such as the one to be held at DCC, move on to the regional competitions held at Pace University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The Grand Champion teams of a regional competition are qualified to compete in the international event held each year in the Georgia Dome.

              DCC’s competition is at capacity, with well over 100 children expected to participate. DCC students will serve as referees during the program.

              The competitions originally came about through a partnership between FIRST and the Lego Group. After IBM decided to encourage the program on a corporate level a number of years ago, Casimer DeCusatis, an engineer at IBM Poughkeepsie, decided to get involved and organize a group. As interest grew, DeCusatis discussed the possibility of local public schools organizing their own teams. The first public school team was sponsored by IBM last year, and this year’s increased demand dictated the creation of the area’s own local tournament. Although DCC will host this year’s program, it will rotate among other local colleges in future years.

              FIRST is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people.

              For more information, call Dr. Leah Akins, head of DCC’s Engineering, Architecture and Computer Technologies department, at 845-431-8421.

              Founded in 1957, Dutchess Community College is a two-year community college celebrating its 50th anniversary of excellence and service to the residents of Dutchess County. It is part of the State University of New York and is one of 30 community colleges in the state system. The College offers a wide variety of associate degree programs, as well as career programs in major technical, human service and business areas. The College also offers non-credit courses to meet the continuing education needs of civic, cultural, business and professional groups and the community at large.

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