This year the KIS Robotics Team participated in the First Lego League (FLL) Championships. The FLL Championships are a unique STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) competition, designed to challenge young students with problems faced by real-world science and technology, and in the process develop lifelong skills and continued interest in STEM.

“This year, the theme was ‘Into Orbit’. The team had to identify a problem, which astronauts face and create a unique solution to it. The team chose ‘sleep in space’ as a problem,” states Head of Design and Robotics Department, Shalini Ambrose.

“After an initial round of research and brainstorming, the team designed a collapsible sleep capsule (CSC) that would improve the sleep quality of an astronaut.”

“The FLL allows teams to seek the guidance of a coach or a mentor. This year, the Robotics Team had just recently learned that a KIS Alumni was part of NASA’s launch of spacecraft New Horizon, which had crossed the Ultima, early in January. They were excited to learn this, and definitely wanted to cross-check their design proposal with NASA Engineer, Carl Engelbrecht,” describes Shalini.

Carl Engelbrecht (Class of 1980) is one of KIS’s notable alumni. Carl works at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He is a subsystems engineer specializing in electrical and chemical space propulsion components and systems. Carl has had over 30 years of experience working with NASA and on NASA projects. He has led and supported propulsion system development for many of NASA’s spacecraft including the most recent, the Messenger and New Horizons.

The KIS Robotics team asked Carl questions like if their proposal could indeed be useful in a spacecraft setting, and if he felt it would improve the sleep of astronauts. Carl provided them with guiding questions that would help seek answers that would better improve their initial design.

Coach Shalini said, “Carl took the time off to show us why he was passionate about what he does, and how he would question what we would believe works. This really inspires the students to take up their ideas, research it and persevere.”

KIS often takes the opportunity to engage our alumni with students to give them exposure that would be hard to get from a standard classroom setting. With the advancement of technology and communication channels, this has only eased over the years. Many alumni, just like Carl find opportunities to interact with our students at all levels, based on their expertise.

Our students find great inspiration with real interactions and learn to pursue their interests in STEM subjects whilst enjoying the journey.

Gaining Carl’s feedback and guiding questions helped the students to rework their plans and presentation and set off for the finals. Their stellar performance got them selected to be one of three teams representing India at the FLL Open International in Lebanon.

– Manjusha Ninan, Alumni Coordinator

Our Design and Innovation Program provides our students with the opportunity to explore, discover, invent and build through critical thinking. To learn more and support this program, please click here.