"3, 2, 1, LEGO!" It was an exhilarating two days at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, USA as 94 teams from around the globe competed in the 2007 FIRST LEGO League (FLL) World Festival.
Top honors went to Champion's Award 1st Place winner, Team 1031 "
Pigmice" from Portland, Oregon; and Champion's Award 2nd Place winner, Team 1677 "Access 9" from South Bend, Indiana. The Champion's Award measures how teams inspire and motivate others about the excitement and wonders of science and technology, while demonstrating gracious professionalism.
Members of the LEGO MINDSTORMS team and the
MDP (
MINDSTORMS
Developer
Program) were on hand at the LEGO MINDSTORMS booth and in the pits interacting with FLL and JFF teams and familes demonstrating and playing with NXT bots, and helping to answer lots of questions about LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT.
MDP
Steve Hassenplug brought a number of his NXT bots including the
Omni (documented on NXTLOG). MDP
Bryan Bonahoom enjoyed chatting with teams and demonstrating his
W.O.P.R. (Tic-Tac-Toe playing NXT robot).
The NXT Step
Blogger and MDP
Jim Kelly
was helping out demonstarting robots in the neighboring LEGO Education booth. Wiz kid, robotics enthusiast, and FLL team mentor
Jay Wieczorek showed off his extensive LEGO MINDSTORMS knowledge and an amazing NXT Crane he invented. Alpha Rex and Spike were there too dancing and "stinging!"
Also present was Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, Chairman of LEGO. He and LEGO MINDSTORMS Director Søren Lund jumped into the fun and battled it out with two remote controlled NXT Zamor Sphere Shooters based off MDP Brian Davis'
DAZLR.
Special thanks to all FLL staff and volunteers, the LEGO MINDSTORMS team and fans, as well as the FLL and JFLL teams and families who helped make the 2007 FLL World Festival a fun and memorable event!
See these links for more information on the 2007 FIRST LEGO League World Festival
FIRST
FIRST LEGO League
The NXT Step Blog