Hundreds of school students from across Qatar are fine-tuning robots and making last minute preparations ahead of the 2014 Qatar National Robot Olympiad that will place at the Ladies Sports Hall in Aspire Zone this Friday and Saturday .
More than 250 student teams have registered to compete across seven fields and three categories, in what will be the largest competition of its type in Qatar.
The National Robot Olympiad is the culmination of the year-long schools robotics programme, Go Robot, which has helped train more than 400 ICT, maths and physics teachers in robotics in 2014. Dr Ken MacLeod, president of College of the North Atlantic, Qatar, said: “The Go Robot programme is focused squarely on increasing participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) subjects in Qatar. Robotics improves problem solving, creativity and competitions like the National Robot Olympiad add an extra layer of learning about team work and independent thinking.”
The Qatar National Robot Olympiad is organised by College of North Atlantic-Qatar and is sponsored by Maersk Oil Qatar and endorsed and supported by the Supreme Education Council and Qatar Petroleum.
Sheikh Faisal bin Fahad al-Thani, deputy managing director of Maersk Oil Qatar, said: “We are proud to once again sponsor the Qatar National Robot Olympiad and the year-long schools robotics programme, Go Robot. Our sponsorship forms part of Maersk Oil Qatar’s broader commitment to boosting participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in Qatar.”
Each team of two or three students competing at the National Robot Olympiad will be expected to build and programme Lego Mindstorm robots under strict time limits and without the assistance of their coaches. The competition will test students’ problem solving, engineering and programming skills as well as team work and initiative.
Fawziya al-Khater, director of the Education Institute, Supreme Education Council, said: “We are pleased to endorse Qatar National Robot Olympiad and the year-long schools robotics programme, Go Robot. Robotics is often called the science of all sciences and the look on students’ faces explains why – robotics is a fun way of encouraging students to be more creative, critical thinkers and problem solvers.”