Elliot Boswell, 12, Jemima Boswell, 10, and Isaac Clark, 11, of Project Bucephalus with their Lego robots.
Picture: ANDY ZAKELI
KATE MCILWAIN
Illawarra Mercury
14 Mar, 2012 03:00 AM
Isaac Clark hopes to one day earn the title of master Lego builder and is already well on his way to achieving his dream. The 11-year-old is one of 10 home-schooled Wollongong children who will represent Australia in a Lego-based science and robotics competition in the United States next month. Since becoming involved in robotics in 2010, Isaac’s robotic team, Project Bucephalus, has used high-tech, programable Lego to build complex working robots to win challenges against other teams. Although they began as novices, the kids’ technological prowess and powerful robots have led to them being selected to compete at an international level for two years. Isaac said playing with Lego was partly fun and partly hard work because it helped him to learn science and engineering skills which would be important later in life. ‘‘With Lego you don’t actually do much actual playing, you actually spend most time building, and you can make impossible things,’’ he said. ‘‘My two main interests at the moment are becoming an inventor or becoming a Lego master builder. These are the professional people who build the huge models for the Lego group and put them on display in shows.’’ A die-hard Star Wars fan, Isaac is saving his pocket money to buy new Lego sets in the US to build a giant diorama of space machines. To raise funds for the trip, the Project Bucephalus team has spent the past few weeks building colourful creations for an exhibition at the University of Wollongong on March 31. As well as their own statues and a display of working robots, there will be a display of towers and trains built by a Lego group in Sydney, and 40kg of Lego bricks for kids to play with. Children and adults can also submit a Lego statue in a building competition at the exhibition or design a machine to compete in a game of robot sumo wrestling.