Abhiram Kumar and coach Avishek Jha (second and third from left) with the rest of the robotics team of DPS Modern Indian School. Right: Dr Theodore Chiasson, dean of Information Technology at the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar.
By Peter Alagos/Business Reporter
High school students, Ray Anthony Ausan and Aldrin Benedict Mejia of the Philippine School Doha (PSD), are no strangers to the hype and complexities of robotics competitions.
While they were obviously in high spirits during the first day of the 2014 Qatar National Robot Olympiad yesterday, the two admitted to Gulf Times that they were feeling the pressure of trying to continue PSD’s winning streak since the school joined the competition two years ago.
ICT teacher Joel Tiemsin, who coaches seven of PSD’s nine teams competing in the two-day competition which concludes today at the Aspire Ladies Sports Hall, recalled that the school took home the gold and bronze awards in different categories during the 2012 local competitions, while in 2013, they won the silver and bronze awards in both the junior categories.
Because of these achievements, PSD represented Qatar in two World Robot Olympiads — first in the WRO 2012 Malaysia (senior high school regular category) and the WRO 2013 Indonesia (junior HS regular category).
“While we did not win the Gold award in 2013, we seem to have required ourselves to maintain the school’s winning streak, which is why we are feeling the weight of the pressure,” said Tiemsin, referring to the previous Olympiad held in Qatar.
The same was echoed by coach Junrey Barde, whose wards were competing in the GEN II football and junior category.
“The members of the teams that I had coached last year have already graduated. Some of the students competing this year are all first-timers,” said Barde, who added that PSD had brought nine teams comprising 21 grade school and high school students.
Meanwhile, Ajith Kumar has invested QR1,800 on the Lego Mindstorms series for his son, Abhiram, who developed a passion for robotics since he was six years old. Today, Abhiram is a senior member of DPS Modern Indian School’s robotics team, which topped the Qatar National Robot Olympiad 2013.
Kumar said he travelled to Indonesia last year with Abhiram, whose team represented Qatar in the World Robot Olympiad 2013.
This year, Abhiram said his team is counting on their robot, “Uno,” to bag once again the Gold award. “We decided to call him Uno since he was the first robot to be created and we haven’t changed robots ever since,” the young high school student said.
Abhiram’s coach of two years, Avishek Jha, said he only advised his students “to do their best” even though the team had limited time to train for this year’s Olympiad.
Jha explained that the recent summer vacation and the students’ recent trip to California for another robotics competition were the reasons why the team only had 15 days of training.
He added that last year, the team had been training since March, which was among the factors why the school was able to clinch the Gold award.
Dr Theodore Chiasson, dean of Information Technology at the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar, described this year’s response to the Olympiad as “phenomenal” and “overwhelming.”
“We have about 275 registered teams this year and the response to registration this morning has been overwhelming,” Chiasson said.
He said while the registration for the competitions was scheduled at 9am, many students had started arriving as early as 7am.
“The turnout this year was phenomenal. A lot of times, many teams register but don’t make it but there’s such a buzz around the event this year. But I think everyone’s coming so it’s a great turnout,” he added.
When asked about the reception of students to the competition, Chiasson said: “The strong turnout tells me that it’s a really great programme for attracting students to science and technology, engineering and mathematics.” He added: “It’s really taking off in the schools. The students are really engaged and excited about the projects they’ve been working on for months and they’re eager to show off their skills.”
The students, from elementary, middle and secondary schools, are competing across seven competition fields in Open, Regular and, for the first time, Gen II football categories, Chiasson said.
The National Robot Olympiad is hosted by College of the North Atlantic-Qatar, sponsored by Maersk Oil Qatar and endorsed, supported by the Supreme Education Council and Qatar Petroleum.
BELOW:
1) More than 250 student teams flocked to the Aspire Ladies Sports Hall for the 2014 Qatar National Robot Olympiad.
2) (From left) Ray Anthony Ausan and Aldrin Benedict Mejia of the Philippine School Doha. PICTURES: Shaji Kayamkulam
