Bend school hosts Lego robotics tournament

Twenty-one teams of kids from all over Central Oregon got together on Saturday for the region’s annual Lego robotics tournament.

The competition took place at Mountain View High School, where teams of kids aged 9 to 14 showed off robots they designed, built and programmed.

To get points, the teams’ robots had to successfully perform a variety of tasks.

Event spokesman Lance Kasari said the competition is all about getting kids interested in science and technology.

Every year, the competition has a different theme, and this year’s was “Senior Solutions.”

“They want to find a theme that provides some challenges that were facing in the world,” Kasari said. “And the amount of seniors we have is greater than ever before, and that percentage is going to continue to go up.”

Robots at the competition were programmed to perform tasks that could someday help seniors in real life situations.

“We’ve got wood-working stuff, gardening stuff, we’ve got some things for balancing and stability, something seniors can sometimes have issues with,” Kasari said.