LEGO® Robots designed and built by 13 teams of students representing DCU Faculties of Engineering and Computing and Science and Health and the DCU Institute of Education battled it out at the FIRST® LEGO® League Hackathon on Friday and Saturday, October 4-5.

Hosted by the Faculty of Engineering and Computing in partnership with the DCU Engineering Society and CreativeHUT, the event was kindly supported by AWS InCommunities and Engineers Ireland. 

Team ‘Six Shades of Brown’, led by second-year Computer Science student Gabriel Ross Lugares, took home the overall winner trophy for their consistent performance across four categories – Innovation Project, Robot Design, Robot Game and Core Values. Lugares was joined on the winning team by fellow computer science students – Igor Rasinski, Rafael Catalan, Favour Yahaya, Krishna Nandipaty, and Rhodney Paraiso Jr.

Congratulations are also due to ‘Team Aquanauts’ who scored 220 points in the SUBMERGED℠  Robot Game to take the top prize in that category of the competition. The Fumblers won an award for their exceptional Core Values, and Team Catalyst took home a prize for their Innovation Project. Team Synergy Squad won the award for best Robot Design.  

Create an innovative solution to a real-world problem

This science and technology challenge, designed as a competitive life skills, robotics competition for 11- to 16-year-olds, tasks teams to build a robot to tackle a series of missions, and create an innovative solution to a real-world problem. 

The SUBMERGED℠ challenge tasks children to use LEGO® robotics and computational thinking to design innovative prototypes that address underwater challenges, such as marine conservation, deep-sea exploration, and underwater robotics. This competitive Hackathon invited teams of undergraduate and graduate students to complete the same challenge in 24 hours.  

The Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering & Computing at DCU, Dr Jennifer Bruton, was blown away by the success of the event. 

“Building on the inaugural FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) DCU Hackathon in March 2024, the Faculty of Engineering & Computing in collaboration with the DCU Engineering Society and CreativeHUT hosted our second 24-hour FLL Hackathon on October 4-5. 

"The interest in participating in the Hackathon far exceeded the event's capacity as students from Engineering and Computing programmes, together with friends from other disciplines sought to network, learn and compete in a dynamic and fun environment.

"The DCU student participants will be highly motivated and prepared to help primary and secondary students with their STEM engagement activities and to support FIRST® LEGO® League to ‘inspire youth to experiment and grow their critical thinking, coding, and design skills through hands-on STEM learning and robotics’.

"These skills, together with a huge appetite for collaboration, inclusion, pizza, and lots of fun were demonstrated in abundance by the Hackathon participants! We cannot thank AWS InCommunities enough for their support of the event.”

Cora Keogh, chair of the DCU Engineering Society, said: "We were amazed at the incredible turnout at this event and the palpable energy displayed by the participants throughout the competition, a 24hr event.

"The impressive level of teamwork and the abundance of innovative ideas was truly remarkable. I look forward to working at future events and am excited to what the future holds. It was amazing to see the teamwork and great ideas throughout out the competition."

Dublin-based, CreativeHUT, is the regional organiser of FIRST® LEGO® League in Ireland, and founder Ross Maguire said this Hackathon went above and beyond our expectations: “The energy and creativity we saw at the DCU Hackathon was truly remarkable.

Passion for problem-solving and collaboration

"The participants demonstrated not only technical expertise but also a passion for problem-solving and collaboration, which are at the heart of the FIRST® LEGO® League ethos. This Hackathon exceeded our expectations, and we’re excited to see how these students will continue to inspire and mentor the next generation of innovators in Ireland."

Supported by the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Discover Programme, FIRST® LEGO® League is delivered in Ireland by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in partnership with local delivery partner, CreativeHUT. 

Dublin City University is a lead university partner in the annual STEAM event, along with university partners across Ireland, corporate supporters, youth groups, schools, children, parents, and teachers.

FIRST is an acronym for ‘For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,’ and FIRST® LEGO® League encourages children to think like scientists and engineers, developing practical solutions to real-world issues. 

Visit fll.ie to discover more about the range of programmes and how to get involved.