This past weekend, the SIS First Lego League team traveled to Tekniska Museet in Stockholm to compete in the annual FIRST LEGO League (FLL) tournament, an event that is aimed at bringing together innovative young engineers from across Sweden. This competition challenged students to combine creativity, programming skills, teamwork, and problem-solving under pressure.
Representing our school, there were the “SIS Oggies”, made up from the team members Amy, Vendela, Pritesh, Vadim, Oliver, Kiryl, and Alizhan, who had dedicated months of preparation to building and programming their robots, refining their innovation projects, and practicing their presentations. Their hard work, curiosity, and determination were on full display throughout the whole competition.
The competition took place inside Stockholm’s Tekniska Museet, which was full of teams, spectators, and referees. Participants guided their robots through this year´s missions, themed to archaeology and the study of the past. Between rounds, teams presented their research projects to judges, explaining real-world problems they aimed to solve and demonstrating their proposed solutions.
One team member described the overall experience with enthusiasm: “Being in the team is very fun. It’s great to work together, and everyone is also a bit crazy. We meet new people, share ideas, and build connections. The competition at Tekniska was stressful, but presenting was really fun, and we enjoyed playing with the museum exhibits too.”
Another participant spoke about the team’s performance and the atmosphere during the robot game: “We came in 10th place because some parts didn’t work the way they were supposed to, but everyone was cheering for us. The support from other teams was really encouraging.”
The team’s innovation project centered on protecting fragile archaeological artifacts: “We designed an exoskeleton for delicate objects. Many artifacts break during excavation because of vibration or human touch. Our idea was to create an external structure that could lift and move the object safely, helping preserve it for future generations.”
At the end of the event, the school´s team was awarded first place in Core Values and third place in the Robot Design Presentation, which marks another proud moment for the SIS robotics program. In the next few months, the school team for the First Tech Challenge (FTC), a more advanced robotics program where older students design, build, and code custom robots for an annual competition, will also take part in their own competition in the Netherlands. We look forward to seeing how they both continue to innovate in future competitions.
