Inspiring Future Engineers with LEGOs

MONTEREY, CA — December 9, 2010 — Sierra Instruments, a global manufacturer of flow instrumentation hosted its local LEGO Engineering League students from ages 7 to 13 in Monterey, California this past week, to show them the importance of simple components in large scale engineering applications. Students experienced a series of classroom/ hands on demonstrations led by Sierra Engineers to demonstrate how playing with sandbox development tools (LEGOS) can be used to make actual instruments.

“Our vision is to be the most innovative flow company in the world,” says Matthew J. Olin, President of Sierra Instruments, “The next generation will play an essential role in helping us achieve and maintain creative leadership. Kids don’t necessarily understand how something like LEGO robotics relates to the real world; they think Transformers, not assembly lines. They also don’t necessarily see how these projects relate to smaller applications, and how robotics are a compilation of systems. We look forward to providing an inspiring and fun-filled learning experience for them.”

The kids also inspired each other by showing off their own creations including a robotic alligator, which they built and programmed to trundle along and periodically stop to open its jaws.

The partnership of Sierra and the local chapter of the LEGO Engineering group is a new commitment from Sierra. Sierra is hoping to instill its passion for innovative engineering and couple it with the kids’ thirst for creating and learning new things to inspire them to become the next generation of engineers and scientists.

See full event coverage write up from Monterey County’s The Herald Newspaper.

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ABOUT SIERRA
Sierra is the leading manufacturer of Thermal Mass Flow Meters in North America (Flow Research, 2009). A global leader in flow measurement and control for over 35 years, Sierra instruments designs and manufactures high performance flow instrumentation for gas, liquid and steam applications commonly found in the semiconductor, environmental, scientific research, petrochemical, energy, aerospace, and general manufacturing industries. With over 150 offices in 50 countries, Sierra is uniquely positioned to provide their innovative products and lifetime support for the leading companies of today and the growth enterprises of tomorrow.