By Noimot Olayiwola

Staff Reporter

 

Ten finalists’ teams at the two-day National Robot Olympiad, which concluded at the Doha Exhibition Centre yesterday, will represent Qatar at the World Robot Olympiad in Jakarta, Indonesia, on November 15-17.

Around 150 teams comprising some 500 students from various schools as well as independent teams took part in the national contest, which saw teams compete in six different categories of open and regular contests.

Winners of the open category were: independent team – Falcons (primary level); ACS Doha International School (preparatory level); and Tariq Bin Ziyad Independent Secondary School for Boys (third).

Winners in the regular category were, independent team – Fantastic Bot Inventors (primary level), DPS Modern Indian School (preparatory level); and Doha Modern Indian School (secondary level).

The National Robot Olympiad forms part of the Go Robot schools programme, supported by Maersk Oil Qatar and the College of the North Atlantic – Qatar (CNA-Q) under the patronage of the Supreme Education Council and with the support of Qatar Petroleum.

The Go Robot schools programme aims to foster interest and develop skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, helping children engage with complex engineering projects in a fun way.

“The teams used ‘Lego MindStorms’ robots to compete in a range of demanding challenges including protecting the heritage sites and performing a task on Comodo Island by removing dragon’s eggs coded as red balls, which were placed beside blue balls that must not be touch or dropped in order to gather points,” CAN-Q  dean Dr Theodore Chiasson explained.

According to him, in the regular category, the students have been restricted to use only Lego MindStorms and the robots must be only 2m by 2m in size whereas in the open category they were allowed to use any materials they like in order to convey their messages about protecting the heritage sites appropriately.

He said that next year’s competition will include ‘gentle football’ where robot will be programmed to play football.

Speaking about their winning project, the Falcons team comprising Elham Almoli, Faris Almoli and Bassam Almoli, coached by their father Ahmed Almoli explained that their project was based on a security and defence system to protect the ancient city of Damascus, Syria due to the ongoing crisis in the country.

“We have thought about many heritage sites that need to be protected around the world, but we selected the ancient city of Damascus, a cultural heritage being threatened presently by the ongoing conflict in the country,” coach Almoli said.

Elham Almoli explained that their project had a protection system divided into two sub-systems: security and defence, which include security gates, air radar system, machine gun and anti-aircraft machine gun.

“To protect the site, which contains the Jabia gate and Umayyad mosque, from any land attack or security breach, we have built two gates (outer and inner gates) as well as a machine gun. The outer gate will allow only the authorised vehicles as we have used ultrasonic and colour sensors to identify authorised and military vehicles. We have programmed the robots to identify military armours by colour green,” the 12-year-old explained.

Team Falcons have won a silver medal in Go Robot competition in 2011.

The Olympiad is the culmination of six months of Go Robot activities, which saw more than 300 teachers attend intensive robotics training sessions at CNA-Q and hundreds of robotics kits been donated to schools across Qatar.  

In total, more than1,500 students have been involved in the programme since it began in 2012.

Maersk Oil Qatar deputy managing director Sheikh Faisal al-Thani, who presented medals to winners after the contest yesterday said: “The 2013 National Robot Olympiad has been an overwhelming success. Congratulations to the winners and all the students who took part. They overcame many complex challenges which in the years to come will help them and country as a whole.”

He expressed the oil company’s delight that the Olympiad as well as the Go Robot programme, has boosted interest in science, technology and engineering saying: “My hope is this will lead to many of the students becoming future leaders in the energy industry.”

The Go Robot programme, formerly known as the Schools Robotics Programme, supports the Qatar National Vision 2030 and is now in its second year.

More information on Go Robot programme can be searched on Facebook using ‘Go Robot Qatar’.