RIYADH: A total of 36 teams, comprising 105 youngsters from different parts of the Kingdom, participated in the Saudi Robot International Olympiad that took place in Jubail Industrial City last weekend.
The international event was held for the first time in Saudi Arabia, which recently received the Robot Olympic membership.
The three winning teams will represent the Kingdom at the eighth Robot International Olympiad, which will be held in Yokohama, Japan, on Oct. 30.
“The success of the high-tech organization of the Olympiad indicates the capability of the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu to host the event in the near future,” said Khaled ibn Azzal Al-Shammari, director of the Community Services Center in Jubail, where the Olympiad was held.
Robot International Olympiad is an international competition in robot programming and scientific thinking for children between the ages of 10 and 18. The competition is run to help participants develop teamwork, creativity, thoughtful thinking and problem-solving skills.
The teams, which comprise two to three members and a coach, were given 150 minutes to assemble and program a robot. The teams are then judged by the organizers according to whether they meet set requirements or not.
The three Saudi winning teams that qualified for the upcoming event in Japan are Nightmare’s, Tictonk3 and Robotica.
The Kingdom is the most recent member to join the Robot International Olympiad, which includes China, Japan, Denmark, Norway, South Korea, Singapore, Sweden, Russia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, India, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Egypt, Qatar, Oman, Jamaica, Indonesia and Thailand.
