First Lego League holds 'Senior Solutions Challenge' event on campus

The Maryland Robotics Center was one of the sponsors of the First Lego League (FLL) “Senior Solutions Challenge: Ask an Expert Day,” held on the University of Maryland campus, Oct. 20. The event was designed to ignite the imaginations of middle school students to come up with ideas that would aid elderly citizens. Hundreds of students representing dozens of area middle school FLL teams listened to and asked questions of the day’s speakers:

Marie A. Bernard, M.D., deputy director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging

Theresa Hayes Cruz, Ph.D., program officer at NIH’s National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research

Rosemary Allender, LCSW-C, C-ASWCM, owner/geriatric care manager, Family Eldercare Management

The students, teachers and mentors both brought and went home with ideas on how to run cognition and strength studies with seniors, or develop memory games to help Alzheimer’s patients. Some students even came up with ideas about how their Wii or X-box Connect could be hacked to improve life for a senior citizen. Don’t be surprised if these bright scientists of tomorrow make an impact in the field of geriatrics one day.

Published October 25, 2012