December 7, 2005 - AUSTIN, Texas – After three months of research and preparation, more than 250 young innovators will put their robotic inventions to the test at the second annual Central Texas FIRST LEGO League Tournament on Dec. 10. National Instruments, the NI Foundation, Kealing Middle School and the Austin Independent School District will team up to bring the worldwide competition to Austin, where participants, ranging in ages from 9 to 14 will take action to ensure the health, diversity, and productivity of the world’s oceans for present and future generations by creating robots using LEGO building blocks and NI LabVIEW-based RoboLab programming software.

What:  
2005 Central Texas FIRST LEGO League Tournament  
 
Who:  
More than 250 Central Texas students  
 
When:  
Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005  
5:30 a.m.      Building Opens  
9:00 – 9:20 a.m.      Opening Ceremonies  
9:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.      Tournament  
2:30 – 3:30 p.m.      Final Rounds  
3:30 – 4:00 p.m.      Closing Ceremony and Awards Presentation  
 
Where:  
Kealing Middle School  
1607 Pennsylvania Ave., Austin, TX 78702  
Map available at: http://www.centraltexasfll.com/map.htm  
 
Photo Opps:  
Student robotic inventions; Team competition for judges; Ceremony and awards presentation; Interviews  
 
About FIRST LEGO League  
 
FIRST LEGO League inspires future scientists and engineers. Guided by imagination and adult mentors, FLL students 9 to 14 face real world engineering challenges, discover career possibilities and learn to make positive contributions to society. FLL is a result of a partnership between FIRST and the LEGO Company and offers the opportunity to design, build and program robots; use LEGO Mindstorms technology; learn team working skills; and research challenges facing today’s scientists. FLL teams compete in tournaments and present their solutions to a panel of judges.  
 
About National Instruments  
 
National Instruments (www.ni.com) is a technology pioneer and leader in virtual instrumentation – a revolutionary concept that has changed the way engineers and scientists in industry, government and academia approach measurement and automation. Leveraging the PC and its related technologies, virtual instrumentation increases productivity and lowers costs through easy-to-integrate software, such as the NI LabVIEW graphical development environment, and modular hardware, such as PXI modules for data acquisition, instrument control and machine vision. In addition to being a major international sponsor of FIRST LEGO League, NI offers resources to universities for hands-on laboratories, cutting-edge research, and student programs and competitions.  
 
LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.