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In this Aug. 14, 2013, photo, children look at a computer presentation on how to assemble Lego parts during a Digital Media Academy workshop in Stanford, Calif. Lego's new Mindstorms sets rolling out next month are keenly anticipated by Silicon Valley engineers_many of whom were drawn to the tech sector by the flagship kits that came on the market in 1998, introducing computerized movement to the traditional snap-together toy blocks and allowing the young innovators to build their first robots. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
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SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Few are more excited about Lego's new Mindstorms sets rolling out next month than Silicon Valley engineers. Many of them were drawn to the tech sector by the flagship kits that came on the market in 1998, introducing computerized movement to the traditional snap-together toy blocks and allowing the young innovators to build their first robots. Now, 15 years later, those robot geeks are entrepreneurs and designers, and the colorful plastic bricks have an outsized influence in their lives.
Techies tinker at Lego play stations in workplaces. Engineers mentor competitive Lego League teams. Designers use them to mock up larger projects ideas. And executives stand Lego creations on their desks alongside family photos.
"Everyone I work with played with them as children. We sit around talking Lego. It's a shared common experience," said Travis Schuh, who reaches into his bin of plastic blocks when he needs a quick prototype at the Silicon Valley medical robotic firm where he works. (Click here for complete article.)
Kellen Asercion, a Stanford University engineering graduate student, first snapped Lego bricks together around the time he started kindergarten, and he was still building when he graduated high school. "Lego sets are almost single-handedly responsible for my interest in engineering," he said.
