Budding young engineers from Reading crowned FIRST® LEGO® League England and Wales champions

A team of young engineers from Reading have been crowned champions of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) FIRST^® LEGO^® League England and Wales Final.

The winning team – ShapeShifters – is made up of:

• Ishika Jain, 15
• Shruthi Lakshmanan, 15
• Nikitha Prabhakar, 15
• Jessica, 14
• Shriya Bangalore Chandramouli, 12
• Tisha Raj Yajaman, 13
• Emily Wu, 13
• Bidisha Ghosh, 15
• Samragee Dey, 13
• Pihu Vijya, 13

They were crowned champions at the competition final on Saturday in Bristol.

The science and technology challenge, which is aimed at 9-16 year olds, tasks teams to build a robot to tackle a series of missions, and create an innovative solution to a real world problem. This year’s CITY SHAPER Challenge, saw students learn all about architecture and the spaces we live in.

The winning team impressed the judges with their team work, dedication, and their ability to stay calm during difficult situations. They displayed how well they can work under pressure.

The team's solution is an innovative idea about a fire protection drone service designed to operate in high-rise buildings to make residents feel safer. For our robot games, we designed a straightforward robot with one medium motor, two large motors and a variety of attachments. These attachments enabled us to complete numerous missions at a time. For example we had many arms that attached onto the medium motor to press, pull, push and drag mission units. We also realised that we required side wall attachments to secure blocks in place during a run. These fundamental designs work well, however we required a different strategy to conquer the bridge mission. Our team came up with a unique idea of changing the wheels just before the mission and was able to help us overcome this hurdle.

Shapeshifters team member Ishika said: "The win was very surprising because we only got through to nationals through the Wild Card and we did so well at the end. I'm glad that our first time at nationals has given us this amazing experience and opportunity. I am also grateful for an amazing team who I know will always have my back."

Kendrick School computing teacher and Robot Club Team coach, Mr Hayes, and parent, Krishna Jain, said: "We couldn't be prouder of the students. They were extremely resilient throughout the competition - never giving up on hope, their robot and their team."

The runners-up were End_Tec, a team from Endon High School.

Lowri Walton, FIRST^® LEGO^® League IET Education Manager, said: “FIRST^® LEGO^® League allows young people to experience engineering in action. As well as bringing excitement to STEM subjects, the students get hands-on experience with robotics, and designing innovative solutions to real world problems.

There is a great need for young people with STEM skills to fill the next generation of engineering role and we are excited to see such bright young engineering minds in FIRST^® LEGO^® League.”

The event was the largest ever FIRST® LEGO® League Final with over 500 young people attending who were all keen to demonstrate their skills in robotics, computer programming, teamwork, research, problem solving and communication.

Other prizes awarded at the final included:

Award	Winner Team Name	Winner School - Organisation
Robot Knockout Award	Team Atlantis	Austin Friars School
Bechtel Safety Award	Neatherd STEM	Neatherd High School
RS Future Engineers Award	Coundon Court Robotics	Coundon Court School
University of the West of England Innovation Award	Philip the Great	St Robert of Newminster Catholic School
Judges Award 1	Aquarius	Colchester Royal Grammar School
Judges Award 2	Bricking It	Quest
HM Government Award for Insight into Learning	Dersi_Coders	Dersingham Primary School
2nd Place Robot Performance Award	Mad Hatters	Ralph Allen School
1st Place Robot Performance Award	End_Tec	Endon High School
Judges Award 3	Team Atlantis	Austin Friars School
Judges Award 4	Swamp Things	Aberdour School
2nd Place Robot Design Award	Team Bergholt	East Bergholt High School
1st Place Robot Design Award	Black Thunder	Reading School
2nd Place Innovation Project Award	Egni	Ysgol Glan Clwyd
1st Place Innovation Project Award	Tech HEds	North Wilts Home Educators
2nd Place Core Values Award	Endr01d	Endon High School
1st Place Core Values Award	Robi1kenobi	Cullercoats Primary School
Coach Award	Mr Sheridan	Caldicot School
Outstanding Contribution by a Volunteer Award	Andrea Tanner
2nd Place Champions' Award	End_Tec	Endon High School

The IET is proud to be the FIRST^® LEGO^® League’s UK and Ireland operational partner. Supporting the competition is part of the IET’s commitment to show young people the benefits of careers within Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

For more information about this year’s FIRST^® LEGO^® League competition, please visit http://firstlegoleague.theiet.org/index.cfm.

About the IET

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Media enquiries to

Rebecca Gillick
External Communications Manager

rgillick@theiet.org
01438 765 618