Lego:

it's not just for kids

by Erin Carpenter

The last thing you might expect to see are university students playing with Lego. But not only do U of C students use the famous multi-coloured building toy, they get credit for doing so.

In fact, students in two faculties use Lego to build robots as part of their course load. Lego robots are also used in Continuing Education in camps for kids.
In the Faculty of Engineering, Assistant Professor Chris Macnab uses Lego robots to teach fundamental understanding of forces, mechanisms, computer programming and controls.

He says it helps motivate students.

“ All of a sudden things come alive for them,” Macnab says. “It’s so much better than just some dry algebra on the board.”

From kid’s toy to revolutionary research tool, Lego appears to have found a solid, effective role in teaching at the U of C. Indeed, Lego robots have revolutionized research in robotics, Macnab says.

“ It’s really the easiest way to get something working. Before Lego, you had to actually saw out a bunch of metal and start soldering it together. You had to be pretty industrious.”

Some of Macnab’s fourth-year students are building medical robots using Lego – a field Macnab wants to explore further at the university. He’s particularly interested in moving beyond Lego to develop advanced surgical robots, like the one used at the Peter Lougheed hospital.

“ They spent $200,000 on a voice-activated robot that could hold a camera for a surgeon,” he says. “I would be aiming not necessarily to improve on that robot but to make it cheaper.” Macnab also uses Lego to teach a skating robotics course to first-year Engineering students at the U of C. He developed the course along with Clifton Johnston, a senior instructor in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering.

“ We linked up with the Olympic Oval and ran a project called SkateBot, where we had all 600 of our first-year engineering students working in teams to design, build and test a skating robot using Lego,” Johnston says.

Lego robotics come with a control unit that students can program, as well as motors and sensors – all the things that come with typical industrial robotics.
Johnston says coaches at the Oval hope to develop a robot to help train speed skaters.

“ Eventually they would want a skating robot to pace skaters to help them train. So somebody like Jeremy Wotherspoon could have a robot that he skates against in front of him, so he improves his performance.”

The Faculty of Education is also involved in Lego robotics – particularly out in the community.

At Glendale Elementary school, Professor David Jardine supervises student teachers who use Lego to help children develop ideas and solve problems.
They’re presented with a situation and then work together to design a robot to deal with it. For example, what if there was a place where you’d want to know whether a door was open or closed?

“ What I would need then is a sensor device that would send a certain type of signal to let me know the door was ajar, and a mechanical way of pushing the door shut,” Jardine says.

The Faculty of Continuing Education also sees the value of Lego robotics and offered its first summer camps for children this year.

Jan Macor, Program Director for Science, Energy and Environment, says along with learning teamwork, the kids get exposed to science and engineering skills.
“ You’re dealing with physics, electronics, mechanics,” she says.

“ The kids learn the theory behind putting together a robot, then they get the hands-on soldering experience and learn how to put the circuit boards, wires and wheels together to make the robot work. Plus, using Lego provides safe, compact, ready-to-go building blocks for kids to design robots no one has ever imagined before.”