More pictures can be found in the gallery!
We set off for the United States with great excitement, where we are representing Hungary at the First Lego League international competition. The venue of the competition is Boston, but we had the opportunity to spend a few days in New York before the event and get to know one of the world’s best-known cities. Our journey began early in the morning. First, we flew to Frankfurt, then to Amsterdam, and after that, we headed on to New York. The long journey was tiring, especially because we had to adjust to a six-hour time difference due to the jet lag. Arriving at the New York airport, a transfer bus took us to our accommodation. During the ride, our tour guide told us many interesting facts about the city’s history, famous buildings, and landmarks. Even then, we could admire some iconic locations while gaining an insight into New York’s bustling everyday life and unique traffic. The next day, we set out to explore the city, which we did by metro. One of the most exciting stops of the day was the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we could learn about the artistic values of different cultures and eras of the world. In the museum, we viewed the works of many famous painters, including paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Monet. In addition, we also walked through the exhibitions related to ancient Egypt, which were very interesting. The museum visit was also special for us because our innovation project was connected to the theme of Circulus. We learned that there are three ivory horns in the museum’s collection, so we made it our goal to find them. During the exhibition, we managed to find all three horns, and we studied the decorations visible on them with great attention. It was an interesting discovery for us to see several motifs and symbols on them that show similarities with the decorations of the Jász Horn (Jászkürt).This experience was particularly valuable, since in connection with our innovation work, we could encounter objects in practice that provided us with new knowledge. And unfortunately, here too, every valuable object was in a display case, which cannot be perceived by the blind. Following this, we visited one of New York’s best-known symbols, the Empire State Building. On the lower floor, we looked at an exhibition about the building, and then two elevators took us up to the 86th floor. The panorama unfolding before us from the observatory was dazzling, viewing the skyscrapers, bridges, and the city’s seemingly endless street network from high above.
On the following day, we sailed to Liberty Island, where we visited the famous Statue of Liberty and its museum. Here, we could learn several interesting facts about the history of the statue, and we also viewed the original torch. After this, we visited the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, where we paid our respects to the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Following this, we walked to Wall Street to see the famous Charging Bull statue, and then we relaxed in Central Park and practiced our presentation on innovation and robot design.
Our third day started early, as we flew from New York to Boston and then traveled to Worcester, where the competition venue was located. After our arrival, we checked into our accommodation and then set to work building and decorating our booth. The highlight of the day was the opening ceremony, where all 108 participating teams introduced themselves. It was a great feeling to see enthusiastic young people like us from all over the world.
After New York, we traveled to Worcester, where the international finals of the First Lego League were held. The opening ceremony was already a special experience, with 108 teams arriving from all over the world. During the competition, we presented our innovation project and robot design, while our robot also performed successfully in the live rounds. It was a great joy for us that members of other teams were constantly showing interest at our booth, and representatives of the Hungarian community living in Massachusetts also visited us.
On the closing day, we were able to watch inspiring innovation project presentations and then participated in the award ceremony. We ended up on the top of the midfield and it was a huge honor to represent Hungary at such a prestigious international event. The experiences gained, the people we met, and the new friendships formed during the competition are at least as valuable to us as the results themselves.
After the competition, we traveled to Boston, where we could spend two more days. We visited the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where a fourth-year student guided us around, providing an insight into university life. Following this, we visited the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, where we learned about a defining event in American history, and then we concluded the day on the shores of Boston Harbor.
On our last day in America, we explored the exhibitions of the Museum of Science. We found the section presenting the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence particularly interesting, as well as the interactive exhibition dealing with optical illusions, where we could try out numerous exciting experiments.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the Foundation for the immense support, preparation, and financial backing they provided us. We are deeply grateful to our developers, mentors, and volunteers for their hard work and dedication without them, we could not have made it this far.
Jász-Stones team