THOUSAND OAKS, CA. – California Lutheran University will host a FIRST LEGO League Robotics Tournament for fourth- through eighth-graders from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 31.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring young people’s interest and participation in science and technology. Its LEGO League program challenges 9- to 14-year-old students to build LEGO-based robots to complete a specific task.

Sixteen teams from local schools will bring the robots they designed to compete for the first time in the 2010-2011 school year. This is the first robotics competition that CLU has hosted. The university is working to become a resource for robotics teams throughout the county and hopes to host additional tournaments.

The event will be held in Gilbert Arena in the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center, which is on the north side of Olsen Road near Campus Drive in Thousand Oaks.

The public is invited to watch the competition. In addition, volunteers are needed to assist with registration, set-up, coordination, judging and refereeing. Volunteers can also serve as mentors to the teams.

For more information on the tournament, contact Bob Rumer at rrumer@callutheran.edu or (805) 377-8369. For more information on FIRST, visit http://www.usfirst.org/.