Promoted content: RS strengthens STEM commitment with Lego support

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RS strengthens commitment to STEM promotion with support for first FIRST

LEGO  League tournament in UK and Ireland.

RS Components (RS) the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the global multi-channel provider of industrial and electronic products and solutions, has strengthened its commitment to inspiring tomorrow’s engineers by becoming the headline sponsor of the FIRST LEGO League competition in the UK and Ireland, and hosting an East Midlands regional tournament, held in Corby. The RS innovation truck, Titan II, was in attendance at the recent regional tournament, to welcome on board budding engineers of the future.

FIRST LEGO League is a global STEM challenge for teams of young people, to encourage an interest in real world themes and develop key skills that are crucial for their future careers. The two-day tournament involved 20 teams of children aged 9-16 years-old from schools in the East Midlands region, and funding from RS’ sponsorship ensured children from disadvantaged backgrounds were able to take part.

Teams worked over a period of 12-16 weeks to explore a given topic and to design, build and program an autonomous LEGO robot to solve a series of missions. This year’s theme was CITYSHAPER, and teams had the task of building a robot using a LEGO MINDSTORMS kit. RS provided more than 50 of its STEM Ambassadors to support the event with refereeing, judging and timekeeping.

RS Head of Education Strategy James Howarth explained: “FIRST LEGO League is a fun and educational way to engage children with STEM – something which we are passionate about supporting. Many of the schools taking part were nominated by RS employees, and RS’ headline sponsorship and hosting of this tournament is a core component of our STEM programme, and our ambition to inspire the next generation of engineers.

“The teams were enthused and worked hard to identify problems based on the theme, design an innovative solution to the problem and share the problems and solution with others. The competition was tough, but we congratulate the winning teams for their successful entries, and wish all the UK finalists luck in this year’s challenge,” he added.

FIRST LEGO League UK and Ireland is run by the Institute of Engineering and Technology, with the aim of inspiring the engineers and technologists of tomorrow, helping to secure the pipeline of engineers crucial to the future of the profession and its contribution to the global economy and society. Further information about the challenge can be found here. For more information on how RS supports STEM, visit the RS STEM hub, which provides a range of resources, products and initiatives that help to bring STEM subjects to life in the classroom and at home.

About RS Components

RS Components is a trading brand of Electrocomponents plc. We offer more than 500,000 industrial and electronic products, sourced from over 2,500 leading suppliers, and provide a wide range of value-added services to over one million customers. With operations in 32 countries, we ship more than 50,000 parcels a day.

We support customers across the product life cycle, whether via innovation and technical support at the design phase, improving time to market and productivity at the build phase, or reducing purchasing costs and optimising inventory in the maintenance phase. We offer our customers tailored product and service propositions that are essential for the successful operation of their businesses and help them save time and money.

Electrocomponents is listed on the London Stock Exchange and in the last financial year ended 31 March 2019 reported revenue of £1.88 billion. Electrocomponents has seven operating brands: RS Components, Allied Electronics & Automation, RS PRO, OKdo, DesignSpark, IESA and Monition.

For more information on RS, visit the website at www.rs-online.com.