Young builders go nuts and bolts.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

Joe Gibbs, an eighth-grader at Jefferson Middle School, nicely summed up the appeal of the Nano Quest Challenge.

"What little kid doesn't like the idea of programming their own robot?" Gibbs said. "But we're also learning potential future ways of helping humanity."

That combination of fun and knowledge marked Saturday's Nano Quest Challenge at St. Paul Parish School, the first time the event has taken place in Eugene.

The contest is part of the FIRST Lego League, an organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen to spark young people's interest in science and technology.

The event started in Oregon in 2000 with about 60 teams, and this year includes about 360 teams competing at 21 tournaments this month, said Cheryl Thoen from the Oregon Robotics Tournament and Outreach Program, which puts on the competitions.

Saturday's event involved 11 teams of elementary and middle school students from Eugene, Oakridge, Junction City, Lebanon and Mapleton.

Each team, using a $250 kit of Lego parts, has worked over the past two months building a robot, each equipped with a motor, wheels and a small programmable computer. They had to figure out how to program the robot to perform up to nine tasks of varying difficulty set up on a 4-foot-by-8-foot "challenge" table. Remote controls and other wireless technology were not allowed.

The theme for this year's event was nanotechnology, a field of science in which structures and tasks take place at the molecular level. Each task given to the robot was tied to nanotechnology.

For instance, one task required the robot to draw a small ball, representing medicine, into a white Lego representing a bone, symbolizing medicine that can be delivered to the exact location where it's needed.

Each team had 2 1/2 minutes to complete as many tasks as possible, with a total of three rounds over the morning. But how well their robots performed the tasks represented just one-quarter of their scores.

Half their scores resulted from how well they did before two panels of judges made up of science professionals and graduate students: One in which they explained their technical design, and one in which they presented their findings. Finally, 25 percent of their scores came from teamwork.

But the timed mission challenge provided the most fun, and stressful, moments.

Under pressure, team members watched in dismay as their robot turned right when it should have turned left, or otherwise refused to cooperate, and cheered and clapped when it successfully completed a task.

After the first round, the Jefferson Robotics team, wearing white lab coats, regrouped and tried to figure out why its robot was unable to complete any tasks.

"We figured out flaws we need to work out," Gibbs said.

After three rounds, the Jefferson robot completed two of its tasks, and the team finished out of the top three. Still, Gibbs said he viewed the competition as a good learning experience. "It's making me learn I want to be a scientist when I grow up," he said, specifically a marine biologist.

A team of seventh graders from Roosevelt Middle School, dubbed Nano Productions, took top honors for the highest overall score, the Director's Award, even though their robot completed just one task in three rounds. But they scored higher than the other teams in the other categories.

"I'm surprised we won any award," 12-year-old team manager Brent Madden said.

The Young Team Award went to the Little Kaibots That Could from Lebanon, and the Rookie Team Award went to King's Grace from Junction City.

The winners will compete next month in a state tournament, and winners in that event will go on to an international competition in April in Atlanta.