Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories (ATL) invited Sandy Run Middle School Robotics Club, Dresher, PA, to join employees and their children in the annual Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day on April 21. Last December, the club fielded two teams that finished first and second in the First Pennsylvania State Lego League Robotics Tournament at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.

The middle school students will join employee children for a tour of the facility that will include emerging technology demonstrations in robotics, augmented cognition, and spoken-language understanding. During lunch, the students will demonstrate their winning Lego League entries to the employee population and will take questions from ATL's engineers and scientists.

"We can't think of a better way to underscore the reason why we bring our children to work than by hosting these bright, young adults from Sandy Run Middle School," said James Marsh, Director ATL. "Their terrific achievements in robotics clearly demonstrate that a focus on mathematics and science - not to mention teamwork - often have exciting payoffs."

For the emerging technology demonstrations, a team of three robots and two engineers will show the unique interactions, behaviors, and non-verbal understanding that occur to achieve complex goals. Augmented cognition will demonstrate how biological, physiological, and mechanical monitoring can help, or augment, a human's ability to deal more effectively with high-stress, multiple task environments. Spoken-language understanding will show a computer's ability to understand speech and its context. Because the system actually understands the human, it can automatically extract and organize essential information in normal conversation.

ATL is observing "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day" one week prior to the nationally recognized day to accommodate the robotics team's attendance at the First Lego National Championship in Atlanta, GA, on April 27-29.

During regional competition last December, Sandy Run teams "Jam Bot" and "Fantastic 7" finished first and second, beating out 65 other teams. Both teams excelled technically, but the judges awarded the overall championship to the Jam Bot due to their first place finish in the research category.

Only Jam Bot can advance to the national competition, where it will meet teams from all over the world. Teams will be judged in robot design, board competition, research presentation, and overall recognition.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin employs about 135,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products, and services.

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SOURCE: Lockheed Martin