LEGO was by far the most memorable trip, especially with how much I loved using them growing up and even now. The precision required to automate production at that scale, on parts that small, is genuinely impressive. One slight misweight or missing piece and everything could hypothetically and really fall apart. The fact that they’ve built automated systems capable of holding those tolerances consistently is a real engineering achievement.
The sustainability piece was what got me thinking most. LEGO is already developing biodegradable materials, and given the sheer volume of pieces they produce, the environmental impact of getting that right would be enormous. That’s exactly the kind of innovation engineers are and should be working towards to make our world better.
What also stood out was how their approach reflects where industry is heading more broadly; paper packaging over plastic, and off-spec pieces getting remelted and remade rather than discarded. Neither of those is a small decision at LEGO’s scale. It signals a company genuinely building sustainability into the process rather than just marketing around it.
Swanson School of Engineering 