Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) hosted today the 5th World Robot Olympiad UAE held at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) for the third time of the competition’s five versions. A total of 390 students from all school cycles comprising 130 teams of three members each competed to win the awards of robotics designing and programming competitions.
H.E Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili, Director General of Abu Dhabi Education Council, said that “Competitions, such as the World Robot Olympiad UAE, help provide students with opportunities to learn and demonstrate new skills and knowledge. They allow our future engineers, mathematicians, scientists, technologists and technicians to grow in ability and learn their craft.”
Preparing students for the challenges that will confront them in their future is a central aspect of education, Dr. Al Khaili pointed out. “Encouraging students to be technologically competent, innovative, creative, problem solvers and collaborative workers will not only help them in their future careers, but will also assist in transforming our economy to one that is knowledge-based and supports thriving and innovative high-tech industry,” he added.
Speaking at the event, Dr. Al Khaili said “In today’s world, robots are being used in many fields to perform tasks Man is unable to do. These fields include industry, agriculture, medicine, exploration, rescue, etc.,”.
ADEC aims to improve student performance by developing communication, critical thinking and problem solving skills while continuing to preserve the cultural and national identity of Abu Dhabi students, Dr. Al Khaili said. The New School Model launched by ADEC at the beginning of the current school year will help develop students to become positive, independent and well-educated citizens” he added.
The Director General called upon the teaching and administrative staff to help develop student skills by adopting modern and advanced teaching methods rather than applying the the traditional ones.
Dr. Al Khaili praised the Abu Dhabi team who did well in the World Robot Olympiad in Korea. “Most of the team members are students from Al Sela’a at the Western Region. This reflects ADEC’s keenness to improve performance across all Abu Dhabi Schools and that students of Al Sela’a are as important to ADEC as students of Abu Dhabi city,” he said.
Dr. Rafic Makki, ADEC’s Director of Strategic Planning, said that organizing this event is the start for developing and enhancing robotics technology in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. ADEC’s 10-Year Strategic Plan aims to improve student skills in several areas including ICT and Robotics.”
Dr. Makki pointed out that a comprehensive plan for training teachers and students at all Abu Dhabi Schools will be implemented in December, January and February. “ADEC will apply “train the trainers” concept, where a group of teachers will be trained first and then they will train their peers in order for them all to be able to train students. Thus, Robots have been distributed to schools for training purposes. This will help make learning an interesting experience for students and teachers,” he added.
John Nammour, Project Director in ADEC’s Strategic Planning Division, said that the First regional Robotics Olympiad will be hosted by ADEC in April 2010. ADEC will be supporting the Arab teams participating in the event.
“The World Robot Olympiad will be organized also by ADEC in April 2011. From 2000 to 3000 students from all over the world are expected to participate in this global event that will shed the light on the efforts made by ADEC for promoting robotics technology,” he added.
C1, C2 and C3 school students have participated in the Regular and Open categories. Schools have been encouraged to participate with many teams as they could after registration with ADEC. Participants needed to design their robots based on specific themes including ‘Robot Promote Tourism’ and ‘Dynamic Robots Promote the National or Cultural Heritage of Your Country.’
A unique component of the UAE version of the Olympiad is the ‘WRO Football Gen II’ robotic soccer match based on the Australian “RoboCup Junior Competition” which will debut in the WRO finals taking place in the Philippines in November 6 and 7, 2010.
WRO UAE entries must be designed using the LEGO Mindstorms RCX or NXT robotics system. Within the competition’s Open Category, robots may be preassembled and programmed using commercial software. However, teams participating under the Regular Category must design and program their robots onsite in 150 minutes. Judging criteria in the Open Category competition include Most Creative Design (40 points), Best Technical Design (20 points), and Best Presentation (20 points). A deduction of 30 points will be made for failure to comply with entry requirements.
WRO, a global robotics competition for young people, was first held in Singapore in 2004. This global event attracts over 1,000 participants from more than 35 countries each year. ADEC’s support of this prominent technology event comes in line with its vision for developing world-class learners who are qualified to meet global challenges while strongly maintaining their national culture and heritage. A forum will be organized by ADEC WRO Team in October to discuss the preparations for hosting the World Robot Olympiad in April 2011.
School leaders and principals thanked ADEC for organizing the WRO UAE that helps provide students with a suitable platform for showcasing their technical skills and an take part in an excellent learning experience to develop their capabilities and skills.
