Bill “Murphquake” Murphy brings us this write-up of the I LUG NY display at NYC First Championshops this past weekend. Take it away, Murph!
It’s that time of year again, I LUG NY was invited to display our creations at the NYC FIRST Championships at the Jacob Javits Center this weekend on March 14th & 15th.
FIRST “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology” is a youth organization dedicated to encouraging students to become interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). To accomplish that goal they have robotics competitions for students of several age groups.
LEGO has been involved with FIRST for many years, with their Mindstorms computer bricks and LEGO System & Technics being used to create competitors Robots in FIRST LEGO League (FLL). NYC FIRST hosts a series of competitions each year culminating in this regional championship, which included over 160 international teams competing in various events, including teams which traveled from as far as the UK, Turkey, China, and Brazil.
I LUG NY brought a variety of our projects and creations to the NYC FIRST Expo, showcasing many aspects of the LEGO hobby and hoping to inspire children of all ages to use their creativity to explore building with LEGO. Members Jason Skaare, Kurt Altschul, Geoff Amend, Marwan shouery, Will Smart, and Bill Murphy brought dozens of unique creations ranging from spaceships to walking castles, from indestructable mindstorms tanks that can climb wall and flip over to a huge walking tree robot (NOT GROOT!), and even from a huge mindstorms controlled ferris wheel to incredible modular buildings. As a member of the lug I was certainly impressed with several of these MOCs which I had yet to see in person and I don’t think any of our many visitors felt any different.
At one point one of our Mindstorms creations was repaired by two small children who clearly were experts in operating and programming with Mindstorms, I don’t think a better example of how successful FIRST is in their mission can be made. As usual we were one of the most popular booths at the show even without giving away any schwag like several of the coroporate sponsors of the event did.
All in all this was a great show for us and we hope to be able to return for many years to come and continue to show off our builds and help show the attendees and competitors some of the more fantastic things they can accomplish using LEGO. Thanks again to NYC FIRST for inviting us and giving us so many chances to hear a child say they’re going to make something like one of our MOCs.
