Photo opportunity, 12.45pm, Tuesday June 17, 1st floor, Division of Applied Computing, Park Wynd, University of Dundee. Prize giving by Mary, Countess of Strathmore and the opportunity see some of the Lego robots put through their paces.
Intelligent robots made from Lego will be doing battle at the University of Dundee tomorrow as part of the Division of Applied Computing's annual Strathmore Trophy competition.
Teams of pupils from local secondary schools will be asked to design a robot to knock down a series of drinks cans along a preset course. The teams must build robots from Lego and give their creations a computer programme which will enable them to follow the course.
The electronic Lego sets were awarded by the Royal Society to Harris Academy and the University for use in a programme of events in the Dundee area to raise awareness of the role of technology.Tomorrow's competition will involve 12 teams from six secondary schools across the region from Anstruther to Strathallan. Each will be competing to collect the Strathmore Trophy and £100 worth of computer equipment for their school. Mary, Countess of Strathmore, will present the winning team with the magnificent trophy she donated for the competition. Other prizes included computer software, cinema tickets and book tokens.
Lecturer Iain Murray, one of the organisers of the event, said "When I was at school, I used Lego myself in a physics project, but it didn't offer anything like the amazing possibilities of this new programmable stuff! The pupils have had great fun in developing both the programme for their task and also the Lego hardware to carry it out, and they have gone right through the design process as part of the competition".
The Strathmore Trophy competition, now in its eighth year, is held annually by Applied Computing to get local school pupils thinking about applications of computer technology to help people.
For further information, please contact: Louisa Cross, Applied Computing Division, University of Dundee. (01382) 344151 Fax: (01382) 345509 e-mail: lcross@computing.dundee.ac.uk
By Jane Smernicki, Press Officer 01382 344768 j.m.smernicki@dundee.ac.uk