Building a career in STEM: how FIRST® LEGO® League inspired two young engineers
For Bassel Ezz and Amber Goodall, the impact FIRST® LEGO® League has had on their career paths cannot be understated.
Every year, teams of young people spend months designing, building, programming and problem-solving before presenting their STEM projects at FIRST® LEGO® League. With the IET as the UK and Ireland delivery partner, the competition is a hub of creativity, collaboration and innovation, and Bassel and Amber are shining examples of its lasting impact.
Whilst Bassel grew up in Alexandria, Egypt and Amber was raised in a small village near Peterborough, from a young age, both had their love of STEM nurtured in STEM-centric families. Amber's dad is an embedded engineer and both her grandfathers were part of the industry – one a hydraulic and mechanical engineer and the other an industrial electrician. Bassel’s dad is also an engineer and his mum is a pharmacology professor at the University of Alexandria.
It was Amber’s dad who introduced her to FIRST® LEGO® League, as he hosted the competitions at The Deepings School and would bring kits home with him that Amber loved to work on. Aged eight – a year before the minimum participation age, she boldly told her dad she wanted to start a team and, after a year of mentoring, aged nine, her enthusiasm was let loose as she stepped into her first experience of the competition.
Meanwhile, Bassel was signed up for the competition by TechnoFuture – Egypt’s first school student-aimed programme for the development of STEM skills, where he partook in electronics, programming and robotic courses. He was 13 when he attended his first of six FIRST® LEGO® League competitions in three years, at the Egypt Finals in 2014.
One particular highlight came in Spain, where his team competed against entries from around 50 countries and achieved third place for Best Research Innovation Project – an unexpected result for a relatively small Egyptian team competing against larger and more established groups. Other successes included winning Best Robot Design and securing second place overall at his final competition.
Amber’s experience was a more local affair, marked by a strong sense of community. During the season, her teammates would come to her house for large-scale brainstorms – ideas filling whiteboards, paper and post-it notes everywhere – and model-building sessions. When the season was over, there were team BBQs, parties and games nights. Her teams won Regionals four times and collected the Judge’s Award and the Graffiti Wall Award at Nationals on separate occasions.
When she reached 17, Amber could no longer compete but she refused to have a FIRST® LEGO® League hole in her life, becoming a mentor for competing teams instead, acting as a sounding board for their ideas. This year, she received the Volunteer Outstanding Contribution Award at the FIRST® LEGO® League National Final in 2026, whilst her dad was handed the Volunteer Excellence Award.
Alongside her mentoring, Amber studies a part-time combined STEM bachelor’s degree at the Open University and is a student representative and Board of Studies member for maths and statistics.
In 2023, Bassel graduated from the University of Manchester with a First-class degree in mechanical engineering. He stepped from his studies into a two-year engineering graduate scheme at Caterpillar and is now an engineer in their Performance Systems Integration Team, working to maximise the performance and capacity of engines. Like Amber, he has remained closely involved with the competition, volunteering as a judge at the FIRST® LEGO® League National Finals every year since 2023.
Both Bassel and Amber credit FIRST® LEGO® League as directly impacting the trajectory of their lives. Competing cemented their love of STEM and has informed what they want from professional life, with Bassel realising his desire to work in the area he does now and Amber, beyond university, keen to have a career where she shares knowledge and leaves an impact as she does in her mentoring role.
They praise the competition for the unique experiences and fun memories it has given them, as well as the skills it has instilled within them. Bassel pinpoints how it helped him develop valuable problem-solving and teamwork skills which allow him to excel in his job today. Amber adds that it also teaches competitors how to be sociable and speak their ideas – skills, she argues, you do not always learn in school.
Both have no hesitation that they would encourage young people to compete in the FIRST® LEGO® League. Amber says: "It isn't just a competition; it's a sense of family, and it will change your view of the world just by taking part."
Bassel agrees: "FIRST® LEGO® League allowed me to do things that I wouldn't have been able to do at that age, and I wouldn't be where I am today without it."