Contest is something to build on

Brain power fueled the energy Saturday at a pair of regional competitions for the First LEGO League robotics tournament.

Nearly 200 middle school students, divided between sites in Mount Prospect and Lake Zurich, huddled with their teams, to tweak their robots in between rounds of tabletop matches.

At stake, was the chance to advance to the state tournament, slated to take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Forest View Educational Center in Arlington Heights.

"It's fun and challenging," said Daniel Urban, an eighth-grader from St. Paul Lutheran School's Men and Machines team, which wound up advancing to state. "You learn how to solve problems."

St. Paul Lutheran School hosted the Mount Prospect Regional, drawing teams from Prospect Heights, Arlington Heights, Hoffman Estates, Palatine, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect and River Forest, while Lake Zurich High School drew teams from Barrington, Fox River Grove, Hawthorn Woods, Ingleside, Kildeer, Lake Zurich, Palatine, Rockford and Willowbrook.

Northwest suburban teams that qualified for state included: Cobalt Blue, LEGO My Eggo, and Men and Machines, all from Mount Prospect; Team STEELE, made up of home-schooled students from Lake Zurich, Wauconda and Hoffman Estates; the Electromagnetic Pulse Generators from Lake Zurich, the GearHeads from Hawthorn Woods, the Gener8tors from Barrington, and the Windycity Shockwaves from Willowbrook.

Teams began brainstorming in September, when this year's challenge was released. Called "Puzzle Power," teams had to build and program a robot -- using LEGO Mindstorms systems -- able to complete 14 missions in 2½ minutes.

During the building phase, they explored alternative energy sources, and had to power their robot to deal with such things as a roof solar panel, hydrogen car, hyrdo dam, wind turbine and solar powered satellite.

Teams also competed with their research projects. The team Cobalt Blue from Lincoln Junior High School in Mount Prospect, created an "extreme makeover" of a nearby car wash, employing such alternative power sources as a solar panel, radiant heat, and new light bulbs.

Sixth-grader Melissa Chyan, of Palatine, a member of the Jaguars from Thomas Jefferson School in Hoffman Estates, worked on the building phase of her team's computer, and she echoed the thoughts of many of the students.

"When I was little I always liked to build with LEGOS," Chyan said, "and I have an interest in robotics."