Team Steminists Triumphs at DCU’s 24-Hour FIRST® LEGO® League InterVarsity Hackathon
Taking place at DCU's Glasnevin Campus, the hackathon tasked participants with tackling the SUBMERGED℠ challenge, which focused on designing and building autonomous robots to address critical underwater issues such as marine conservation, deep-sea exploration, and environmental sustainability. Using LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Prime kits, teams worked intensively to develop innovative, real-world solutions under tight time constraints.
The event fostered creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving as students collaborated across institutions and disciplines to meet the challenge brief. Participants showcased exceptional resilience and ingenuity throughout the 24 hours, culminating in a series of impressive final presentations and robot demonstrations.
The Steminists from Rutgers Women in Science and Engineering, a team of six female engineering students, took home the overall winner trophy for their consistent performance across four categories - Innovation Project, Robot Design, Robot Game, and Core Values. Their prize was kindly sponsored by Intel Ireland. Team members included Aisha Agboola, Alyssa Schmidt, Kristodya Koduah, Mehak Mantoo, Rabiya Haque and Rachel Chempiel. They were accompanied by Prof Lydia Prendergast, Associate Dean of the Douglass Women in Science and Engineering Program (WiSE), and Prof Lorne Joseph, Director of Engineering and STEM Research Initiatives at Douglass WiSE.
Congratulations are also due to DCU’s Team HP, led by Computer Science student Dennis Custiuc, who scored 245 points in the SUBMERGED℠ Robot Game to secure the top prize in that category. Team Catalyst won an award for their exceptional Core Values, while Team Hack & Stack took home a prize for their Innovation Project. Team Techno Bots claimed the award for best Robot Design.
Speaking at the event, Dr. Jennifer Bruton, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Computing at DCU, said:
"This hackathon reflects DCU's commitment to fostering innovation and collaboration through experiential learning. It has been so exciting and inspiring to see students from diverse backgrounds come together to solve real-world challenges while developing critical STEM and life skills. Even after 24 hours, the enthusiasm and smiles of the participants were amazing to see. The demand for participation far exceeded the event's capacity, with students from a range of disciplines at DCU, along with valued partners from universities and further education institutions including Rutgers University and Wuhan University, eager to network, learn, and compete in a dynamic and fun environment.
The DCU student participants, alongside their further education and international peers, are now highly motivated and well-prepared to assist primary and secondary students with their STEM activities, supporting FIRST® LEGO® League in its mission to ‘inspire youth to experiment and grow their critical thinking, coding, communication, and design skills through hands-on STEM learning and robotics.’ These skills, combined with a strong passion for collaboration, inclusion, pizza, and plenty of fun, were on full display by the Hackathon participants!"
This year’s hackathon continues to build on DCU’s long-standing engagement with FIRST® LEGO® League competitions and the university’s dedication to promoting STEM education through collaborative, hands-on experiences.
Supported by the Research Ireland Discover Programme, FIRST® LEGO® League is organised by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in partnership with Irish delivery partner, CreativeHUT. The programme also benefits from national sponsorship by Amazon.
For more information or media enquiries, please contact:
mediaqueries@dcu.ie
