The first Lego robot Kasper Breisnes and Eric Bibby built together was a security measure.

The pair attached a small cannon onto a servomotor as well as a distance sensor aimed at a bedroom door. Whenever the door opened, the cannon would fire a small projectile at the intruder. 

Who were they trying to keep out exactly? "Sisters," says Kasper.

That was three years ago, and in the interim Kasper and Eric have progressed from safeguarding against siblings to building robots that solve world problems.

Kasper, 12, and Eric, 13, will attend the world championship next month in Houston, Texas. The Balfour, B.C. residents, who compete under the moniker Nelson Nerds, first won a regional event in Kelowna, then captured first place at the B.C. and Yukon provincials March 9 in Maple Ridge, B.C. to earn a berth at worlds.

The First Lego League Challenge is a worldwide STEM program for kids ages 9-14. Participants build and code a robot made of Lego to complete a series of objectives on a game board while also incorporating a research project to solve a real-world problem, which this year is ocean themed.

鈥淲e get to hang out and do Lego robots that we had already been doing," says Kasper. "It was just like normal play dates, but now we get to be doing it for this competition, and we get to get to go around the world, meet these other teams from other places.鈥�

To get to worlds, Kasper and Eric have had plenty of family help. Kasper's mother Beth, a software engineer, is the team coach and has taught the boys programming. Eric's mother Charmain, a scientist who once circumnavigated the globe in a sail boat, helped the boys find their research project. Eric's twin sister Karla also designed the boys' team shirts (sisters have their uses, too).

For the competition, teams have to build a robot that can complete as many challenges as it can within two-and-a-half minutes. One such module is aimed at opening a Lego whale's mouth to feed it krill, while another is about hanging up a coral reef. ( to see one of the Nelson Nerds' runs at provincials.)

The robot Eric and Kasper designed is called Ares 5B, named for their shared birthday of April 5 and the first letter of their last names. The process, which started in December, took hundreds of hours to land on a creation that was both mobile and customizable. In doing so, they learned important lessons about design.

鈥淚t can be fun at times but also can be quite frustrating when something consistently doesn鈥檛 work," says Eric.

The final version is clever. The Ares 5B is programmable box on wheels with connections for attachments that can be added or removed based on what the team needs. One example is what the team refers to as "the wedgetable," which is an attachment that helps Ares 5B push a module at an angle. At first Kasper and Eric conceptualized a robot arm, but their finished design only relies on the power of the robot pushing forward.

鈥淣ot many things need power," says Kasper. "A lot of things can be done passively.鈥�

The competition also requires teams to solve a real marine problem. The Nelson Nerds decided they would focus on saving the world's coral reefs, which a 2021 research paper found died off by approximately 50 per cent between 1957 and 2007 due to rising sea temperatures. A United Nations investigation later announced a further 14 per cent of reefs were been lost between 2009 and 2021.

Coral reefs are essential to life both above and below the waves. They provide shelter for a quarter of all marine life in the oceans, and are a source of food, jobs and protection from storms and erosion for humans.

For their project, Kasper and Eric spoke with researcher Andria Salas of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. Healthy coral reefs have their own soundtrack, a mix of fish, crustacean and water noises that when heard heard together sounds like a cat purring.

鈥淧laying the sounds of healthy corals to unhealthy ones actually helps them regrow and coral larvae resettle, which rebuilds the underwater ecosystems,鈥� says Eric.

Eric and Kasper's idea to play coral sounds from a speaker placed inside a waterproof container. The small box could then be attached to sail boats anchored near dead reefs. This could also be done at sailing competitions 鈥� the annual Atlantic Rally for Cruisers in the Caribbean, for example, features over 200 boats that could each be fitted with speakers. 

The concept has impressed competition judges, and provided the Nelson Nerds with a ticket to an event that will feature 50,000 participants from around the world. The pair are also already looking ahead to future competitions, which include older age ranges.

The possibilities inside a box of Lego, after all, are endless.