Students compete in RWU robotics event

By Kimberley Donoghue
PBN Web Editor
Twitter: @ kdonog

BRISTOL – More than 500 elementary- and middle-school students competed in a food safety robotics tournament on Jan. 14 at Roger Williams University.

The “Food Factor” tournament was one of the international FIRST – For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology – competitions. This year’s challenge was to explore where the food might be contaminated along the supply chain.

Fifty-four teams of students from Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts presented robots and research projects in the morning and, in the afternoon, competed in a points-based robotics contest.

Each team designed, built and programmed a Lego Mindstorms Nxt robot throughout the season leading up to the competition; they researched a chosen food safety issue and developed a solution to address the problem.

The winning team, dubbed Mindstorms Mayhem, was a team from All Saints Academy in Middletown; each member was awarded a four-year RWU scholarship of $200,000.