Robot Olympiad a ‘big success’

More than 300 schoolchildren from the Middle East and North African (Mena) region participated in the 2012 World Robot Olympiad – Arabia held on Saturday at Aspire Dome. Hosted by the College of the North Atlantic - Qatar and Maersk Oil Qatar, the international competition included teams from Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon, Egypt and Algeria. It is only the second time the WRO-Arabia competition has been held, and the first time in Qatar. Sheikh Faisal al-Thani, Deputy Managing Director of Maersk Oil Qatar hailed the Olympiad as a great success, noting that the international contingent had more than doubled in size from last year, with over two hundred participants travelling to Qatar from the Mena region. He said: “The goal of the WRO Arabia in Qatar event was to promote interest in technology and engineering amongst young people and highlight the dynamism of Qatar and its students at an international level.” Medals were awarded to the top three teams in each level of the open and regular competitions. Three awards each were given to the winners in the following categories, namely open category (Primary level), Open category (Secondary level), Regular category, (Primary level), Regular category (Preparatory level), and Regular category, (Secondary Level). Sheikh Faisal al-Thani said: “Maersk Oil is fully committed to supporting the Qatar National Vision 2030, which encompasses the key pillars of human, social, economic and environmental development. By partnering in this educational initiative, we are enabling more children in Qatar to be inspired by and gain an early interest in technologies that will drive Qatar’s continued growth and development.” He added: “The World Robot Olympiad - Arabia showcased the incredible talents of students in Qatar to a international audience as they successfully competed against the best in the region.” The robot competition is the result of a partnership agreement between CNA-Q and Maersk Oil Qatar to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics to students in Qatar and forms part of Maersk Oil Qatar’s ‘Action for Qatar’ social investment programme. Dr Theodore Chiasson, Dean, School of Information Technology at CNA-Q, is the National Representative for the WRO in Qatar. “With Maersk Oil’s support, we have been able to bring this exciting regional competition to Qatar, allowing many teams from Qatar the chance to participate in an international competition.” “We had 70 teams from Qatar join the WRO-Arabia competition this year – in contrast, only 1 team from Qatar participated in last year`s WRO-Arabia when it was hosted in Abu Dhabi,” explained Dr. Chiasson. “Robotics is a great way to introduce young students to science and technology, and we are privileged to work with Maersk Oil to promote and develop technology career paths for Qatar’s youth.” Students of all ages competed against their peers in either the Open or Regular Category.  In the Regular Category, students assembled and programed a Lego Mindstorms robot to solve a set challenge on a playing surface. In the Open Category, students displayed robot creations they developed using the Mindstorms kit and software.