Release Date: 5/15/2009
Dayton, OH—Sixty teams of students from across the United States proved their engineering skills at the FIRST LEGO® League (FLL) United States Open Championship in Dayton, Ohio, May 8-9. Battelle was the event’s primary sponsor.
More than 9,000 teams competed in regional tournaments for the chance to enter the FLL U.S. Open Championship, held at the Ervin J. Nutter Center and the Student Union on the Wright State University campus. A special team event also was held at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
Teams comprising three to ten students ages 9-14 collaborate to build and program a robot that must complete a number of tasks in a set time period. The teams are also evaluated on their research project, their robot design and programming, and their overall teamwork. Spectators cheer on the competitors during this “sport of the mind.”
Battelle awarded a $6,000 scholarship to the winning team, the Landroids (www.landroids.org ), which is from New Jersey. The Battelle Award for Innovation in Science is a $6,000 STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) scholarship that is divided equally among team members so that students can broaden their background to enhance their personal STEM resumes.
Additionally, each student on the winning team will have his or her own Battelle mentor until they graduate from college. Battelle will track their progress through the years and support them in meeting their personal educational and career goals.
“This was a great experience and showcased some of the nation’s most talented youth. Some of the teams even had patents pending on techniques for things like the generation of algae-based synthetic fuels and wind energy. Our future is in great hands,” said Battelle Dayton’s Dan Kugel, who helped coordinate the competition.
Battelle proudly served as the primary partner for the FLL United States Open Championship. Other partners included the Wright State University College of Engineering and Computer Science and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Educational Outreach Office.
Battelle is the world’s largest non-profit independent research and development organization, providing innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing needs through its four global businesses: Laboratory Management, National Security, Energy Technology, and Health and Life Sciences. It advances scientific discovery and application by conducting $5.2 billion in global R&D annually through contract research, laboratory management and technology commercialization. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Battelle oversees 20,400 employees in more than 130 locations worldwide, including seven national laboratories which Battelle manages or co-manages for the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and two international laboratories—a nuclear energy lab in the United Kingdom and a renewable energy lab in Malaysia.
Battelle also is one of the nation’s leading charitable trusts focusing on societal and economic impact and actively supporting and promoting science and math education.
Media contacts: Katy Delaney at (410) 306-8638, delaneyk@battelle.org, or T.R. Massey at (614) 424-5544, masseytr@battelle.org.
