LEGO Announced 100 New Participants for its Mindstorms Developer Program

LEGO Announced 100 New Participants for its Mindstorms Developer Program
The LEGO Group's robotics team announced the selection of 100 new participants for its Mindstorms Developer Program (MDP), an exclusive group of enthusiasts charged with helping guide the product development process for LEGO Mindstorms NXT, the next generation of LEGO robotics.

9,610 robotics enthusiasts, ages 18 to 75 years of age and representing 79 countries responded during the one-month online application process.

Developer program participants have approximately four months to experiment with the product, with the intent of furthering the community-based development process, prior to its availability to the public.

The recruited developers are chaired by Mitch Resnick of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, a pioneer of the original LEGO Mindstorms platform and consultant on the development of the next generation platform.

"As a member of the original development team for Mindstorms in 1998, I am thrilled to be part of the evolution of this product," said Resnick.

"I particularly love the idea of recruiting loyal Mindstorms users to contribute their skills and experiences to the rollout of the NXT platform.

In our work at the MIT Media Lab, we've found that the best learning - and the best innovation - happens when people get actively involved in designing, creating, and experimenting.