Suburban teams in Lego state championship

Sixty-four teams of 9- to 14-year-olds will converge Saturday on the Forest View Educational Center field house in Arlington Heights for a state championship based largely on ingenuity, inspiration and teamwork.

The FIRST Lego League Illinois State Championship Tournament is the culmination of months of research and design on robotic solutions to this year's topic: Gaining Efficiency in Transportation Systems. (FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).

Missions include exploring how to plan efficient routes and sequences, climb steep ramps, respond to changing conditions, travel along narrow bridges with no guard rails and endure crash tests. Teams have programmed their robots to explore the growing questions of how to make transportation more efficient.

FIRST collaborated with Susan Zielinski at the Center for Advancing Research and Solutions for Society at the University of Michigan; David Doerr, a software development engineer at General Motors Corp.; and Chris Locke, a software engineer for Garmin, to create a theme and challenge missions reflective of one of the most relevant topics today.

The FLL competition is judged in four areas: project presentation; robot performance; technical design and programming of the robot; and teamwork. The highest honor will go to the team that best exemplifies the spirit and values of the program.

FLL is an international program for 9- to 14 year-old children created in a partnership between FIRST and The Lego Group in 1998, based on their common belief that fun and learning go hand-in-hand, and that an inspired mind can accomplish anything.

Each September, FIRST Lego League announces the annual challenge to teams, engaging them in authentic scientific research and hands-on robotics design.

The kids work alongside adult mentors to design, build and program robots to complete missions based on real-world challenges. After eight weeks, the competition season culminates at high-energy, sports-like tournaments.

Currently in its 11th year, FIRST Lego League anticipates its biggest season ever, with more than 16,000 teams in 40 countries competing in hundreds of qualifying events and championship tournaments. More than 160,000 children will compete to win honors and recognition and aim for the World Festival, to be held in conjunction with the FIRST Championship, April 15-17, 2010 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.

FIRST Lego League state championshipNorthwest suburban teams among the 64 competing Saturday in Arlington Hts.bull; Got Robot? Elginbull; Toyminators, Palatine (affiliated with Quest Academy)bull; SWAT, Arlington Heightsbull; Brainstormers, Palatinebull; Lego Hawks, Palatine (aff. with Hunting Ridge School)bull; Finding F.U.E.L., Lake Zurichbull; Some Assembly Required, Bartlettbull; Gem Miners, Lake Zurichbull; Crash Test Dummies, Lincoln Junior High, Mount Prospectbull; iLEGO, Mount Prospectbull; Thunderbirds, Mount Prospect (aff. with Lincoln Middle School)bull; TransFusion, St. Peter Lutheran School, Rolling Meadowsbull; Gear Slop, Barringtonbull; Neebex, Elgin (DaVinci Academy)bull; Aquafire, Elgin (DaVinci Academy)bull; LIMES (Living Intelligently Means Engineering Successfully), Schaumburgbull; Double Trouble, PalatineTrue20001229Teams face off at the 2008 state championship. This year's challenge is transportation; last year's challenge involved climate change.Joe Lewnard | Staff PhotographerTrue