The 21 girls and boys aged 10 to 15 are well on their way to building a secure basis for the future with LEGO. The MPDV Robotstars even took first place in the Project round, while the MPDV Space Experts claimed pole position in the Robot Game. The FIRST LEGO League provides a platform for bright young minds to have fun solving technical tasks. Intent on entering the competition prepared, the children of MPDV employees, joined by their coaches, met up at MPDV’s headquarters weeks ahead of the competition to plan, program and test out their fully automatic robots. Besides building a robot with special LEGO bricks, the children were asked to solve a research question specially developed for this year's INTO ORBIT season and present their findings.

MPDV Management board member Nathalie Kletti points out that the company has helped the competition develop in the local region for many years: "Promoting young talent is extremely important to us. The FIRST LEGO League offers the opportunity to spark children's interest in science and technology and lets them show off their creativity." One example of the company's dedication to promoting young talent is the MPDV Junior Academy, which it founded in 2014 in collaboration with DHBW Mosbach, Obrigheim high school and Heidelberg University of Education. The aim behind the academy is to give schoolchildren of different age groups the chance to attend seminars on robotics, microcontrollers and automation so they can learn how to develop their ideas and get to grips with the technical terminology. "As the market leader for IT manufacturing solutions, we are always on the look-out for highly skilled workers, making promoting young talent an important part of what we do," explains Kletti. Anyone keen to find out more best head to the MPDV Mikrolab GmbH stand in Hall 7 at the upcoming HANNOVER MESSE 2019.