Generation of Engineers

With programmable robots and student competitions,

Lego is making tinkering with machines cool again
By Franz Lidz
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE | SUBSCRIBE
MAY 2013
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There are no ballpoint grenade pens, no wrist-mounted dart guns, no Aston
Martins tricked out with smoke screens, bulletproof glass, revolving license
plates or ejector seats. Still, the geek-approved contraptions at Legos
research-and-development facility in Billund, Denmark, are as covetable as
anything cooked up by Q Branch.
FROM THIS STORY

PHOTO GALLERY
Q Branch, of course, is the section of Her Majestys Secret Service (MI6)
that supplies James Bond with fanciful gadgetry. The headquarters of MI6
is a ziggurat-like fortress known within the intelligence community as
Legoland. It gets its name from the toy company that has supplied earth
with more than 600 billion tiny plastic bricksabout 80 for each
inhabitant. The Lego companys own HQ is a modest campus as neat and
well-ordered as a quadratic equation. Huge colored bricksa corporate nod
to artlie scattered in tidy piles, and simple rectangular buildings bear
names like Idea House and Head Office.
Legos own MI6, its top-secret R & D lab, is on the second floor of a drab
brick structure called the Tech Building. Inside, gearheads in jeans and
fleece pullovers are surrounded by enough electronic ganglia to jump-start
Frankensteins monster. Amid a spaghetti of wires and a blaze of red, green,
blue, yellow and purple blocks is an amazing array of robot prototypes, all
capable of exasperating behavior. Some of these marvels propel themselves
on Lego wheels; others skitter around on Lego legs. Theres a scorpionlike
robot that turns sharply, snaps its claws and searches for an infrared beacon
bug. Theres a Mohawked android that flings little red balls as it rumbles.
And theres a fanged robot snake that, with the wave of a smartphone,
shakes, rattles and rolls. Dangle your cell in front of the serpents head and
it lunges to bite you.
All three gizmos are characters in Mindstorms EV3, the latest update of a
do-it-yourself kit that enables budding Edisons to assemble robots, program
them on PCs and Macs, and control them via Bluetooth, downloadable apps
and voice commands. Like any other Lego, Mindstorms EV3 is a jumble of
parts (nearly 600 separate elements) that can be plugged together many
ways. The toy, which clocks in at $350 and will be in stores this fall, comes
with 3-D interactive building instructions for 17 different bots that walk,
talk and stalk. And, this being Lego, enterprising kids are encouraged to
hack away and turn the components into whatever they can dream up.
***
Once upon a time, teachers lacked the tools to excite and engage pupils in
engineering. And the technological know-how required to put together a
juddering robot limited the audience to high-school and university students.
That all changed in 1998 when Lego launched its first wave of
programmable bots. By the second wave, in 2006, the programming
language had become visual and kids could make bots do pretty much
anything simply by stringing directives together on a computer. Today a
second grader can make her own wall-avoiding triceratops in 20 minutes,
says Chris Rogers, a professor of mechanical engineering at Tufts
University.
With bricks, action and hues as vibrant as tropical sunsets, Lego created a
way for novices to learn the basics of structural engineering: bracing,
tension and compression, loading constraints, building to scale. By
combining Lego bricks to sensors, servo motors and microprocessors, those
novices can now explore everything from basic pulleys and belts to
computer programming. Mindstorms EV3 makes tinkering with machines
cool again, says Ralph Hempel, author of

Lego Spybiotics Secret Agent
Training Manual.
Mindstorms encourages young tinkerers to play their way into robotics. It
puts no limits on your fantasies, says Niels Pugholm, a Danish college
student whos been playing with Legos from the time he was old enough to
know he shouldnt swallow them. Most toys pre-tell a story; Mindstorms is
exploratory and has no set rules. If I construct a Mars rover robot, I can
rebuild it into a robotic arm and then a robotic humanoid. Lego robotics is a
sneaky educational way to learn about design, planning, construction and,
most importantly, reconstruction. In Denmark, he says, its obligatory for a
child to build a Babel Tower out of Legos that inevitably gets demolished.
The EV3 is the third generation of demolishable Mindstorms, and the
second thats been crowd-sourced. The power of many, says Marc-Andr
Bazergui, one of a dozen Lego citizen developerswho call themselves the
12 Monkeysimpaneled to design the latest edition. Over the years, the
many have fashioned Lego bots that solve Rubiks Cubes, sort M&Ms by
color and convert conventional toilets into robo-flushers.
Part of the so-called maker movement, Mindstorms fanatic online
community shares ideas by uploading plans for new creations to Lego
forums and posting videos to YouTube. Across the globe, schoolchildren
belong to leagues and hold tournaments in which teams are challenged to
design, build and program a Lego robot to complete a specific task related
to a theme like climate control or transportation safety. In the United
States, competitions are run by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of
Science and Technology), a nonprofit founded by the seemingly
inexhaustible inventor Dean Kamen (creator of the Segway scooter). Every
spring FIRST holds championships in four robotics divisions, spanning ages
6 to 18. At this years three-day Lego block party at the Edward Jones Dome
in St. Louis, 650 teams vied for robotic superiority and more than $16
million in scholarships to 140 colleges.
Half of all stateside middle schools and about a quarter of all elementary
and high schools have folded Mindstorms into their curricula. The
Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a Lego Chair, which is not a
chesterfield made of Lego bricks, but an endowed professorship at the
colleges media lab. At Tufts, the robotics sets have evoked an equal number
of dissertations and disquisitions with catchy titles like Teaching Basic
Cardio-Vascular Mechanics with Lego Models: A High School Case Study.
Rogers worked with Lego to develop Robolaba robotic approach to
learning science and maththats been used in some 50,000 schools
worldwide and has been translated into 15 languages. He stresses design
thinking, the idea that you frame a problem by first imagining its solution.
His approach is based on demonstration, critique and iteration: Everything
can be made better, even failure. The kids make an educated guess and
then run experiments to prove their theories, he says. They see that there
is no right or wrong answer, just an infinite number of ways to address a
problem. Learning that is as critical to engineering as it is to life.
Samuel Beckett exhorted: Fail better.
***
In Danish, Lego is pronounced LEE-go. In English, the construction craze
that has gripped the civilized world is pronounced LEEgoMAINia. An
Italian artist painstakingly re- created the works of old masters in Legos,
including da Vincis

Mona Lisa

and

Vermeers Girl With a Pearl Earring. A
Chicago artist has designed Lego mini-scale sets of the White House, the
Sydney Opera House and 15 other eminent edifices. Others have gone to
extraordinary lengths to assemble the worlds largest Lego bridge (122 feet),
the worlds longest Lego train track (4,923 feet) and the worlds tallest Lego
tower (106 feet, seven inches; 450,000 bricks). It would take 40 billion
eight-stud Lego bricks to build a stack to the moon, though no one has yet
attempted this.
Not only does every significant new NASA spacecraft and mission now beget
its own Lego model, but astronauts aboard the International Space Station
have built them in orbit. There are Lego Darth Vader clocks, Lego Ninjago
video games and a Lego Quidditch match. A year from now the animated
adventure film

LEGO: The Piece of Resistance

is due in theaters. Featuring
characters voiced by Will Ferrell and Morgan Freeman, the cartoon
promises to be a real, ahem, blockbuster. At last count, four of the top 10
childrens chapter books on the New York Times best-seller list were from
Lego. One of them,

The Lego Ideas Book, carries the tag line Unlock Your
Imagination.
Imagination is what has guided Lego from its founding in 1932 by Ole Kirk
Kristiansen, a Geppetto-like carpenter with a small workshop in Billund, a
rural hamlet in Jutland with the topography of a pancake. In a bid to beat
the Great Depression, Kristiansen started making brightly colored wooden
cars and pull-along ducks. Having concluded that his toy company needed a
more evocative name than Billund Maskinsnedkeri, he truncated the
expression

leg godt, Danish for play well. In a fortuitous coincidence,
Lego means I put together in Latin.
Lego, as understood by most adults, began in 1949, shortly after Kristiansen
bought Denmarks first injection-molding machine and began cranking out
toys with some plastic parts. According to Lego legend, he happened upon
some hollow, British-made blocks called Kiddicraft, which inspired his own
Automatic Binding Bricks, the forerunner of the Lego brick. The design
breakthrough was a studs-and-tubes mechanism that allowed the bricks to
snap together, hold fast and yet somehow come easily apart. Legos are the
ultimate symbols of Danish character, Niels Pugholm says. Theyre
unassuming little objects that depend on logic and geometry. Perhaps
because Denmark has so few natural resources, ingenuity is treasured.
In 1958the year of Kristiansens deathLego patented its click-fit
technology, which the company calls clutch power. The key is precision
engineering; the tolerance of Legos Danish Modern prongs is one-fiftieth of
a millimeter, ten times finer than a human hair. Over the next half-century
Lego became one of the worlds most beloved toys. Roughly half the parents
on the planet have been woken up by a disturbance in the middle of the
night, dashed groggily into their kids bedroom and stepped barefoot on a
Lego brick.
Children are fantastic little creatures, Mads Nipper, the companys
marketing chief , has said. Next to drunk people, they are the only truly
honest people on earth. As the millennium approached, Lego exploited that
honesty by going on a branding bender. The family-run firm made forays
into childrens clothing, baby products, jewelry, video games and theme
parks.
But something was rotting in the state of Denmark. By 2004 Lego had made
some blockheaded financial decisions and was on the brink of bankruptcy
or a takeover by Mattel, the worlds biggest toy retailer. Kjeld Kirk
Kristiansen, CEO and grandson of the founder, appointed former
management consultant Jorgen Vig Knudstorp to replace him and rebuild
Lego, brick by brick. Which Knudstorp did, cutting costs, laying off staff,
halving development times, scrapping the software division and slashing
product lines. Seemingly relegated to the Great Toy Attic in the Sky, Lego
made a remarkable turnaround.
One line Knudstorp left untouched was Mindstorms, which began life 15
years ago in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab. The original patent on
our interlocking brick expired in 1975, says Nipper. The only way to
continue differentiating ourselves from our competitors was through
creativity. And not necessarily Legos own creativity: The company has
outsourced Mindstorms innovation to its hard-core fan base.
The relationship between Mindstorms and its enthusiasts had always been
symbiotic. A couple of months after the debut of the robotics kit in 1998,
Stanford University graduate student Kekoa Proudfoot reverse-engineered
its proprietary microprocessors and posted the design secrets. Other
hackers pounced on his findings, designed new software and operating
systems, and shared performance tweaks with the rest of the Internet.
While Legos management and legal team debated how to handle the
breach, Nipper suggested that the company should encourage open-
sourcing.
Suing the modders, he reasoned, might alienate Legos adult hobbyists, who
accounted for nearly half of Mindstorms sales and were, essentially, willing
to work for free. In the companys new business paradigm, development
should be fan-driven and fan-controlled, with very little oversight from
Lego. So little that a right to hack was written into the Mindstorms
software license. We came to understand that limiting creativity is the
opposite of our mission, Nipper says. Our goal is to foster inquiry and
ingenuity. The strategy paid off: Mindstorms became the best-selling
product in Legos history.
In 2005, with the kit due for a design upgrade, Lego trolled through online
forums and websites for adult fanboys willing to be part of a Mindstorms
User Panel, or MUP. The four finalistsall sworn to secrecyand Legos
engineering brain trust spent 11 months swapping e-mails about everything
from firmware to input ports. In return for their contributions, the
MUPpets got paid in Legos. Its the best possible relationship, says
panelist Ralph Hempel, a professional engineer who specializes in
embedded systems design. Money would complicate the issue. There is no
other brand in the world that I would consider doing similar work for at no
charge. Getting advance copies of robotics kits is just icing on the cake for
me.
For the latest version of Mindstorms, Lego expanded its user panel to a
dozen brickheads (the 12 Monkeys) and studied how kids interact with
robotic toys. Camilla Bottke, the companys senior marketing manager, says
kids dont view robots as objects as much as extensions of themselves,
things with character and personalities. I think thats a great concept, right
up until the child has to build the robot and program it, offers Hempel.
Thats when the reality sinks in of how much thinking and tinkering goes
into making a design work.
***
You say you want a revolution, sang a skeptical John Lennon. Well, you
know, we all want to change the world. The problem with the digital
revolution, echoes Dean Kamen, is that the ability to play with technology is
often confused with the ability to understand it.
The 62-year-old engineer and entrepreneur holds forth from a hexagon-
shaped house of his own design on the outskirts of Manchester, New
Hampshire. He wears what is virtually his uniform: an open-neck button-
down denim shirt and denim pants.
Kamen dropped out of college to develop the worlds first wearable insulin
pump. He went on to create the Segway; a self-balancing, six-wheeled
robotic wheelchair capable of going up and down stairs; and an electrical
generator that can run on cow dung and produce potable water on the side.
Of all his inventionsand Kamen holds 441 foreign and domestic patents
the one hes proudest of is FIRST, a largely mental sport based on
competitive robotics.
He started FIRST in 1989 to demystify engineering and grow a generation
of innovators. Too many high-school kids in this country, particularly
women and minorities, drop out of science and math classes, he says.
Theres no incentive, no encouragement. Indeed, he argues, there are all
sorts of subtle disincentives and discouragements. Kids need access to
challenging, hands-on projects that result in a tangible product. Instead of
telling them why abstract concepts like algebra or trigonometry are
important, science teachers should say, Lets build a Lego robot! With a
little assistance, the kids build one and it solves a problem. Suddenly, they
realize that math and science are very powerful tools. Suddenly, math and
science are relevant and fun.
Kamen envisions a time when youngsters revere pioneering scientists as
much as, say, NBA superstars. The one thing American culture celebrates
is sports heroes, he says. Lots of athletic teenagers think theyre going to
make a fortune by bouncing a basketball and becoming the next LeBron
James. Thats not realistic for even the tiniest percentage of them.
Becoming an engineer is. Still, Kamen concedes the innate differences
between classrooms and playing fields have helped make careers in sports
more attractive than ones in tech. When athletes work together, its called
teamwork, he says. If you work together in science class, its called
cheating.
The Robotics CompetitionFIRSTs equivalent of the major leagueskicks
off every January, when a committee of engineers reveals that years game
and rules. Supervised by engineers, scientists or other adult mentors, teams
of high-school students have six weeks to design and construct small,
inelegant machines from kits. The only constraints are weight (the robot
cant exceed 150 pounds) and cost. (To mitigate economic, rather than
engineering advantages, Kamen has established a kind of salary cap of
$4,000 on additional parts.)
Though each team faces the same challenge, they devise vastly different
design solutions. Local winners advance to one of the 58 regionals, where
their bots battle for the chance to qualify for the finals in St. Louis. The
championship is structured like March Madness, the NCAA Mens Division
I basketball tournament. Kamen calls it the NCAA of smarts. Each of the
four divisions is named for a famous scientist (Archimedes, Curie, Galileo
and Newton). The Final Four is played on the Einstein Field.
A recent Brandeis University study shows that kids who participate in
robotics contests are more than twice as likely to pursue a career in science
and technology, and nearly four times as likely to pursue one in
engineering. The robot is just a vehicle, Kamen says. In six weeks you
cant give a kid a meaningful education in robotics or technology or
engineering. But by building robots, you can build self-confidence and a
serious understanding of what life is like for people who work on and solve
complex problems. For a lot of kids, robotics has the potential to change
where they put their time and attention.
On this particular January afternoon, about 750 kids from as far afield as
Singapore are putting their time and attention into a FIRST tournament at
the University of Delaware. A cross between a science fair and a Big Bang
Theory costume ball, its one of the biggest single-day robotics events in
the country. Entrants have come decked out as mad scientists, crash-test
dummies and assorted grotesqueries that even Dr. Seuss wouldnt have
concocted.
Tinkertoy technology has transformed a field house into a veritable
hardware emporium. Workshop cubicles are crammed with tawny ratchets
and rusty wrenches; wide gray clusters of wheels, pulleys and extension
arms; and everywhere, everywhere Legos. Banners bear team names like
Bricktastic Builders, the Fellowship of the Brick, Lego-Nardo da Vinci.
Down on the Robotics Competition playing court, the most conspicuous
confederacya quartet of New Jersey lads known as the Carbonautsis
clad in safety glasses, running shoes and what looks to be orange prison
jumpsuits. Legos inspire me and bring me back to reality, says Ibrahim
Elshahawi, a high-school senior planning a career in biomedical
engineering. Ive learned that I cant just build a robot. My ideas have to be
more organized and sequential.
The younger contestants are about half female. In the Robotics
Competition, girls are few and far between. Girls are more into aesthetics,
logistical, detail-oriented, offers a Carbonaut named Charles Verhoog.
Were not into style points.
Guys are into smashing things, says teammate C.J. Geering.
A teenage girl on another teamher pinkish tresses braided with Chinese
finger trapspops her head into the Carbonaut huddle and cracks, Youd
be surprised.
A buzzer sounds. Egged on in the stands by cheering sections and
hyperventilating parents, the teams set their folklift-like robots in motion
on the course. The object: to snatch rubber rings from a vertical heap and
deposit them on horizontal spokes. The Carbonaut bot grabs, drops, stalls,
rams into walls and yet somehow...wins the heat.
Like a worn-down stock car, the triumphant bot is rolled back to the pits,
where the Carbonauts monkey with the algorithm, changing speed and
direction variables. Asked if he has ever participated in a tournament
tarnished by a robotic doping scandal, teammate C.J. Geering deadpans,
The judges occasionally ask us for samples of electricity, but so far none of
ours have been tainted. The last thing we want is to have to appear on a TV
special with Oprah.
Across a partition, Austin Hwa and Thomas McClure, clad in crimson
cravats, toques and chefs jackets, lounge beside a pyramid of Lego bricks.
Theyre members of Chef-Bot-Ardees, a mostly middle school contingent
from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.
This years Lego League Challenge is to solve issues faced by the elderly. The
chefs have whipped up a robotic walker fitted with a magnetic tray.
The tray is magnetized to keep knives and forks from falling off, explains
Hwa.
And spoons, adds McClure, helpfully.
Thirteen-year-old Hwa says Lego robotics have put him on the tech track.
McClure, whos 10, isnt so sure engineering is in his future. Not to go off
topic, he says, but I dont think Ill necessarily go into that line of work.
He contemplates the Lego pyra- mid through the lattice of his fingers. Im
in the fifth-grade band, the percussion section, he says. Theres a really
high chance Ill grow up to be a rock drummer.



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