Langston Middle School's
2002 Lego Olympiad Teams

Langston's after school LEGO robotics group, coached by teacher Doug Sheldon, competed in the annual Nordson/SME LEGO Olympiad at LCCC on Friday, April 12th. Langston teams placed 1st and 2nd in the Computer Controlled Division.

The "Fumaroles", Leo, Mara, and Alex took first place honors with their whimsical robot that rolled along, stopping periodically to raise the lid on a bin full of Skittles. Unfortunately, this robot was only designed to tempt as a light sensor, detecting a reaching hand, quickly closed the lid on the offered Skittles.

The "Telphers", Ian, Eddie, Marshal, and Ben claimed second place with their track following robot. The robot was designed and programmed to use its light sensors to follow any shaped white line track. Slick.

 

Looking back in Langston Robotics Team History

The 10th Annual LCCC/Nordson Corp. Lego Olympiad was held at Lorain County Community College Friday, April 16th, 1999. At their first attendance in this event, Langston Middle School students participating in the Computer Controlled and Open divisions, captured awards in both.

The eighth team competed in the Computer Controlled Division under the team name "Bob." They won first place and went on to win the "Best of Show" trophy.

Team "Bob" - Best of Show Trophy

The eighth grade team "Aquarius" captured the third place trophy in the Open Division.

Team "Aquarius" - Third Place Trophy

The Lego Olympiad is sponsored by the Nordson Corporation and hosted by the Student Chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers at LCCC. The contest is designed to provide activities that expose students to engineering principles, design and construction techniques, and machinery and mechanisms. The contest is also intended to promote planning and teamwork skills. Entries are judged according to engineering merit, complexity, originality, aesthetics, functionality, team work and presentation.

The "Best of Show" entry in the Computer Controlled Division featured an autonomous robot constructed from the new Lego Mindstorms kit. The kit features a programmable unit that can be connected to various external sensors and motors, creating a machine that can move freely and react to its environment. Programs for the robot are developed on a computer using a sophisticated, object oriented, programming language that is then loaded into the robot using an infrared link. Entrants were not permitted to bring preassembled Lego projects and any computer programs had to be written on site. Langston students have been experimenting with the robotics equipment after school in Mr. Doug Sheldon's 8th grade science classroom.

"Bob" - an autonomous robot