22 February 2025
Bilbao Campus San Sebastian Campus
The University of Deusto, in its Bilbao and San Sebastian campuses, held last February 22 the final of the FIRST LEGO League Euskadi, organized by the Basque Innovation Agency-Innobasque, which took place simultaneously in four venues in Bilbao, San Sebastian, Mondragon and Vitoria-Gasteiz. This program, which aims to promote scientific-technological vocations among Basque youth, this year celebrates its 16th edition as a statewide benchmark in promoting STEAM vocations.
In the case of the tournaments organized by the University of Deusto, the Bilbao campus brought together 45 teams (26 Challenge + 19 Explore) from a total of 19 centers. Meanwhile, at the Deusto campus in Donostia, 43 teams from 14 centers competed (26 Challenge + 17 Explore). A total of 884 schoolchildren between 6 and 16 years of age experienced a unique day in Deusto in which they competed in the robot game and defended their innovation projects with values around this year's thematic challenge, which consisted of the exploration of the oceans.
The eight winning teams, two from each of the venues, will participate on March 29 in the Spanish final to be held in El Ferrol. There they will present their innovation projects, and their robots will compete for a pass to the world final in Houston (United States), to be held from April 16 to 19.
They are the representatives of El Regato from Barakaldo; San Fidel Ikastola from Gernika; Sagrado Corazón from Bermeo; Santo Tomás Lizeoa from San Sebastián; Berrio-Otxoa from Bilbao; Jesus María Ikastetxea from Bilbao; Urkide from Vitoria; and Tecnoclub from Elburgo. These teams stood out for being the most complete of the 170 teams that participated in the tournament.
The winning innovation projects have proposed unique solutions to the challenge of this edition. Some of them have been the design of a new ecological suit, safer for divers and more environmentally sustainable, made of biodegradable materials and allowing to reduce the risks of decompression sickness; a project based on the Maritime Gardens that allows research initially in laboratories and then placed in the sea to solve the degradation of the seabed flora; an underwater communication kit; an underwater drone equipped with an advanced camera and a high-precision sensor that determines the degree of turbidity of the water and makes it possible to determine the degree of visibility of the water before the divers make the incursion; the reuse of the Lemoniz nuclear power plant and its maritime environment to create a live research center to explore the seabed; or the development of buoys that detect poisonous algae and help prevent them from appearing on the Galician coast and harming shellfish and the work of shellfish gatherers, among others.
Collaborators and volunteers
In the final of Deusto Bilbao, which was sponsored by BBK, Iberdrola, BRTA, Multiverse Computing and the collaboration of Drone by Drone, Ausolan and Alzola, 87 volunteers collaborated as judges, referees, floaters, scientists... In addition to the tournaments, different activities and the Opengune, the meeting included an institutional visit, led by Aitziber Irigoras, vice-rector of University Community and Agenda 2030, with the presence of Asier Perallos, dean of the Faculty of Engineering of Deusto; Ainara Basurko, deputy of Economic Promotion in the Provincial Council of Bizkaia; Javier Garcinuño, director of Bilbao Ekintza; Nora Sarasola, director of Obra Social BBK; Estibaliz Goñi, Director of Processes and Technology i-DE - Iberdrola; Jon Kepa Gerrikagoitia, Scientific and Technological Manager of BRTA; Pablo García-Bringas, Vice-Dean External Relations Engineering of Deusto; Patxi Casal, General Manager of Alzola; César López-López, Operations Director of Ausolan; and Itziar Uribe, Operational Coordinator of Innovation Policies of the Basque Innovation Agency, Innobasque.
As for the Deusto San Sebastian final, its main sponsor was Fomento San Sebastian, in addition to Salto Wecosystem, BRTA, Multiverse Computing, CAF and the support of Ausolan, Doplay, CIMASUB and Alzola. Ninety volunteers collaborated in its organization and, as in Bilbao, it included an institutional visit led by Xabier Riezu, vice-rector of the San Sebastian campus, accompanied by Eider Mendoza, deputy general of Gipuzkoa; Ane Insausti, Deputy for Economic Promotion and Strategic Projects of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa; Ane Oyarbide, Councilor for Equality, Economy and Local Employment of the City Council of San Sebastian; Alaitz Landaluze, General Coordinator of Innovation Policies of the Basque Innovation Agency, Innobasque; Iñaki Lekuona, Vice-Secretary of Engineering of Deusto; Cristina Giménez, Director of University-Business Relations of the Faculty of Engineering of Deusto; Iñigo Olaizola, Director of Fomento San Sebastián; Rikardo Bueno, General Manager of BRTA; Román Orús, co-founder and scientific director of Multiverse Computing; Maider Salegi, operations director of Ausolan; Alberto Asín, director of Doplay; David Sánchez, director of CIMASUB; and Marc Handels, director of Technology and Innovation at Salto Wecosystem.
Record participation
This year, FLL Euskadi has broken the record of participation of schools, with 60 Basque schools, 5% more than in the previous edition, and 170 teams (107 Challenge teams and 63 Explore teams). The program is supported by the Departments of Science, Universities and Innovation and Education of the Basque Government, the three Provincial Councils and a large number of public and private entities. In total, 39 companies, universities, research centers and institutions share the commitment to awaken the interest of schoolchildren in science and the skills associated with it: innovation, experimentation, critical thinking, teamwork and creativity. During the 16 seasons of FLL Euskadi, a total of 101 centers; 1,932 teams; 18,800 schoolchildren; and 1,500 volunteers have participated. In addition, during this time 137 workshops and visits related to the thematic challenge of each edition have been organized.
Why FLL in Deusto?
In the words of the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Asier Perallos, “at the University of Deusto we are very aware of the transformative power of science and technology in society. And that is why we have spent almost two decades demonstrating our commitment to the development of scientific and technological vocations among children, aware of the large gap between the needs of these profiles by companies and the insufficient number of young people who opt for these studies in their university stage”.
He assures that the FLL is a perfect instrument for this purpose, as it is able to present science and technology to very young ages in a friendly and fun way. “The truth is that it is a joy to be able to see the illusion with which the children, girls and their families come every year to the tournament held at our FLL headquarters in Bilbao. It is exciting to see nearly a hundred volunteers dedicated to making sure that everything goes perfectly. It is a beautiful day and the culmination of a training program that is developed over many months in collaboration with the schools and a multitude of institutions involved, in which our engineering faculty also takes part,” he says.
For his part, Xabier Riezu, vice-rector of the San Sebastian campus of the University of Deusto, considers that the FLL is part of the commitment of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Deusto in Donostia to respond to the needs of our environment. The great social transformations are taking place today in the technological area, and we need people with the best university education and values to lead these changes and build a better world. An educational program such as the FLL is a magnificent platform to awaken and accompany these vocations from an early age,” he says.
