THE TEAM “MINDERS” SHOWED UP THE BEST RESULT AT THE NATIONAL STAGE OF WORLD ROBOT OLYMPIAD

On June 23, 2019 the national stage of World Robot Olympiad (WRO) was held at Yerevan EXPO center. The official representative and organizer of the Olympiad in Armenia is “Ayb” educational foundation. For the second consecutive year “Rostelecom” Armenia supports the organization of the national stage and the winner team participation in the international stage of the contest.

The team “Minders” representing Mind Center organization showed up the best result during the national stage of World Robot Olympiad. The team members Davit Hakobyan, Davit Lazyan and Levon Aleksanyan shared their excitement with their coach Davit Manucharyan telling how they overcame their excitement, corrected the inaccuracies and got high score. “Ayb” educational foundation will negotiate with the international organizers and discuss the conditions for “Minders” participation in the international stage of World Robot Olympiad in Hungary at the end of the year.

This year 11 teams were competing at the national stage of the 16th World Robot Olympiad, under the motto of Smart cities with the use of their robots. The main prize for the winner team was participation in the International stage of the World Robots Olympiad in Hungary at the end of the year.

“This is the second year we support the organization of the World Robot Olympiad in Armenia and the winners will represent Armenia in international arena. In 2018 the Armenian winner team performed quite successfully among the 23,000 international teams: it was a serious experience for the team.

Year by year people come up with more attention on developing such important skills from younger age that reflect more expertise and this way we put our contribution in the process. The participation in the international platforms and contests is an opportunity to represent Armenia, creative mentality of Armenian youth and at the same time bring new ideas and technological solutions to Armenia”, - mentioned the CEO of “Rostelecom” Armenia Hayk Faramazyan.

Since 2016 “Ayb” educational foundation is the official representative and the organizer of World Robot Olympiad contest in Armenia. The Olympiad encourages the teaching and learning of robotics, programming, engineering from school age, and makes possible the involvement of Armenian students in the international prestigious competitions and Olympiads.

“The World Robot Olympiad is a unique competition. It is being held at the highest international level, and the winner team gets the opportunity to participate in the international stage. It is already 3 years Armenia participates in the international stage as well and succeeds in this important international sphere. The tasks are difficult, but the kids handle them successfully: it is very encouraging for us. Through this competition we want to say why robots are important. The specific directions such as programming, machine learning may evolve and face some changes in the future, but the robot as a phenomenon will be growing in our life for many years. If children understand this in younger age they will become very flexible in the future, adapt to technological changes and be ready to work in these areas”, - mentioned the Executive Director of “Ayb” school Aram Pakhchanyan.

The motto of World Robot Olympiad 2019 was development of Smart cities. Olympiad participant teams designed and built robots that would solve problems arising in real life.

"The skills and knowledge gained as a result of participating in the Robotics Olympiad (including the STEM) form future generation of startups and new ideas, that create new perspectives for the development of the Armenian ICT industry. At the same time, participation in such competitions eases a creative and constructive mentality that is a cor e and essential skil for startup ecosystem", - mentioned the CEO of “Rostelecom” Armenia Hayk Faramazyan.

The participant teams of the Olympiad were representing the following institutions and organizations: “Mind Center”, “Whiz Code Academy”, “Mkhitar Sebastatsi” educational complex, NPUA High School, Physmath school, Ashnak secondary school.

About World Robot Olympiad

It is already 15 years WRO builds this educational platform. 4000 teams from 12 countries participated in the first international competition held in 2004. While in 2018 more than 26.000 teams from 72 countries competed durin the Olympiad.

The aim of the World Robot Olympiad (WRO) is to unite children and youth from all over the world around the idea of robotics and to develop their creativity, planning and problem solving skills.

Technical information about the competition

The minimum number of participants in the team is 2, maximum – 3. The team should have at least 20-year-old team lead.

Only 6-19 year-old children and youngsters can participate in the competition. Teams can compete in different “categories” (the choice is made in advance).

• Regular competition
• “WRO-Football” competition
• Open competition
• WeDo regular competition

How is the winner chosen?

The robot performs the task three times. The winner becomes the robot with the highest score.

Tasks of 2019


According to the team age structure the tasks that the robots should have done in 2019, were the following:

1. The mission of the elementary age group of the WRO regular competition was to create a robot that could operate as a real autonomous, automotive taxi and transfer passengers from the starting point to the destination.
2. The mission of the junior age group of the WRO regular competition was to create a robot, which would modernize the building lighting system and help save energy.
3. The mission of the elder age group of the WRO regular competition was to create a robot that would modernize the city's communication network by installing new wireless node devices and an optical network.
4. The goal of WeDo regular competition was to create a robot that could take children from their homes to school. The robot must also deliver fruit to the school.
5. The WRO Open Competition offered teams to introduce innovative ideas for management and use of robots in the workplace and educational.