2008 FIRST LEGO League World Festival Award Winners
Thursday, April 24th, 2008Here is an article from LEGO about the World Festival in Atlanta.
Click here for the article on their Mindstorms main page, below the article about Dean Kamen.
This link seems to be permanent.
Josh
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Team Scores 3 Perfect 400’s at FLL World Festival
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008Congratulations to GREEN MAN GROUP who scored 3 perfect 400-point runs at the FLL World Festival this April 16th-19th. They received the 1st Place Performance Award. GREEN MAN GROUP is a part of The New England Robotics Designers - check out their website here.
Here is a link to the World Festival awards page, featuring a picture of the team and their robot.
Josh
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RoboLab Conference
Monday, March 31st, 2008Is anyone going to the RoboLab Conference in Enfield on Friday? If so, post here!
See you there!
Josh
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BrickFest PDX 2007 - Open Pre-Registration
Tuesday, December 12th, 2006
Pre-registration is now available for next year’s BrickFest PDX.
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Brickworld 2007 Announced
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
A new AFoL event has been scheduled for next year in Chicago.
Here are the early details:
BrickJournal™, BrickStructures™, Team Hassenplug, Team Possible, Team B-squared and Fun Time Technologies have joined forces and are pleased to announce Brickworld ‘07 to be held in Chicago. Brickworld™ is a chance to showcase your creations right here in the Central Midwest. Chicago being the third largest city in the U.S. naturally has a great deal to offer - including 3 Lego outlets. We are strategically placing the Brickworld location in the suburb of Wheeling, IL just 30 minutes northwest of downtown Chicago. Wheeling is conveniently located close to the expressway servicing O’hare Airport and is also half way between the 2 Lego outlets at Woodfield Mall and Northbrook Mall, each 15 minutes away. The 3rd Lego store is located downtown Chicago 30 minutes away.
The event will be held at the brand new 5 star Westin Hotel & Convention Center. The main ballroom offers 15,000 sq/ft and an additional 15,000 sq/ft around the ballrooms peripheral for small group sessions, competitions, demonstrations, The Great Build (more about that later), marketplace, etc.
BrickWorld ‘07 will be held from June 21st - 24th 2007. We are excited to bring this show to the public during a time of year when school is out and sunshine & good weather are in. The convention area will be open for setup the afternoon of June 21st for early birds. We will have a closed AFOL exhibitor day on Friday and public exhibition on Saturday, June 23rd and Sunday, June 24th. This June weekend is reserved at the site for the next 3 years, reinforcing this event as the one event not to miss!
Want to have an exhibit on display and/or interested in attending? Please visit http://www.brickworld.us/ for more updates as they become available.
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NXT Second Life Video
Monday, December 4th, 2006
Over the summer, Wired hosted an event in the virtual world of Second Life to kick off the LEGO Big Robot on Campus series. The Media Factory has posted a video with highlights of what took place.
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First Annual Thanksgiving RoboParade
Thursday, November 23rd, 2006
Here’s a video to the first Annual Thanksgiving Autonomous Robot Parade held at Lawrence Tech University.
30 robotic floats created by grade students participated in the first event. Robots were made by 27 Lego RCXs, 2 Lego NXTs, and one Boe-Bot.
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Building Knowledge With LEGO
Tuesday, November 14th, 2006
A local news site features a closer look at a FIRST LEGO League team competing in a tournament at James Madison University this Saturday.
In some respects, Chase Conley’s LEGO robot looked like any other creature built by an imaginative child.
Gray, black and yellow LEGO pieces clasped together to form what resembled an Army tank.
But this robot wasn’t a toy.
At about 6 inches long and 4 inches tall, the robot had an arm that extended from its right side and ended in pinchers. It had sensors that responded to light and touch, and in its middle sat an NXT controller, the brains of the operation.
The robot was programmed to perform a very specific set of missions.
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BrickFest PDX 2007
Monday, November 6th, 2006
A few years ago, the first BrickFest outside of the Washington, D.C. area was held in Portland, OR. Due to popular demand, it looks like another is in the works to be held March 30 - April 1!
In the spirit of the positive feedback we have received we are thinking of this event sort of like a “reunion”; we feel that the family or class reunion best captures the hullabaloo of last time, that we would like to extend to all AFOLs! In addition to several classrooms for sessions at the Oregon Convention Center we have 30,000 square feet of exhibit hall, so there is plenty of SPACE for exhibits and other activities.
Keep your eyes open for more information about registration and public day.
Miss out on this year’s BrickFest? See some of nxtasy.org’s coverage and videos!
[via BrickFest]
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Dr. Truchard on Cyber-Physical Systems
Friday, October 20th, 2006On Monday, Dr. James Truchard, President and CEO of National Instruments, delivered a keynote address to attendees of a National Science Foundation workshop on Cyber-Physical Systems. The workshop promoted a new government initative to research and enhance the real-time integration of computers and physical components.
Truchard discussed cyber-physical system design and programming, including technologies for distributed control and sensing using graphical system design tools. He also gave a preview of future technologies for cyber-physical system design and showed examples of LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT and wireless sensing devices.
He emphasized the importance of programming heterogeneous multiprocessor computer systems, which are key to controlling these types of systems, so that they meet concurrency, responsiveness, power, performance and reliability requirements.
[via National Instruments]
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Buzz Words: Technology Convergence
Thursday, October 12th, 2006
Last month, Microsoft held its inaugural Global High Tech Summit where leaders in high-tech manufacturing met to discuss the future of their industry. Key topics included communication, collaboration, innovation, and convergence.
In high tech, competition is ferocious, the rules of the game change overnight, and the rate of change is accelerating due to new markets, customers, products and technology.
- Microsoft
Phil Hester, AMD’s corporate vice-president and chief technology officer, centered on this idea of technology convergence. He emphasized that the future technological frontier for exploration is the space between your cell phone and laptop computer.
Everything is essentially becoming a network device.
- Phil Hester, AMD
Hester believes that the focus should not only be on the progression and improvement of technology that already exists, but also the progression and improvement on the mechanisms to package and deliver that technology. He considers the new LEGO Mindstorms NXT as one of the prime examples of technology convergence today.
[via Cadalyst]
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NIDays 2006 - Savoy Place, London
Thursday, September 21st, 2006
The UK semi-equivalent of NIWeek, National Instruments will hold a one-day conference called NIDays that will feature all the coolest innovations in virtual instrumentation. The LEGO Mindstorms NXT, powered by NI LabVIEW, will definitely be on exhibit.
To get an idea of what one might see at NIDays, see Dick Swan’s NIWeek trip report.
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2006 FLL Challenge: NANO QUEST
Saturday, September 16th, 2006
Per David Levy, the new FIRST LEGO League challenge for 2006 has been announced. The theme this year will be nanotechnology. As you can see, the board and obstacles look pretty awesome.
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Big Robot on Campus
Thursday, September 7th, 2006LEGO has updated the Mindstorms site with a bit of Big Robot on Campus coverage. Check it out!
You’ll get an inside look at some of the most talented minds at WIRED magazine, GAP Kids, Microsoft, AOL, Reebok and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And you’ll see NXT bots created by other leading groups!
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