DOHA: Qatar is bidding to host the 2015 World Robot Olympiad for the first time, an important step to boost science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in the country.
Hosting the world event is being seen to be a catalyst for even greater local participation and mean the inclusion of up to 36 teams from Qatar – more than a 200 percent increase on this year’s participation level.
“If Qatar is fortunate enough to win the hosting rights for the 2015 Olympiad, I’m sure it will be a further catalyst for students,” said Sheikh Faisal Al Thani, Deputy Managing Director of Maersk Oil Qatar, sponsors of Qatar’s participation at the 2013 edition of the Olympiad which takes place in Indonesia this weekend.
Students from 10 champion robotics teams in Qatar are competing at the three-day event which starts tomorrow in Jakarta. More than 1,200 students from over 40 countries are taking part in the competition.
The Qatar teams qualified from among 200 local schools that competed in the recent Qatar National Robot Olympiad.
The event, now in its 10th year, is open to those between the ages of seven and 19 who will compete in regular, open and GEN II Football categories using the Lego Mindsotorm robotics platform.
Maersk Oil Qatar’s GO ROBOT schools programme which includes the annual Qatar National Robotics Olympiad has involved more than 1,500 students in the past two years.
“The recent National Robot Olympiad showed how students’ creativity can be improved by using the Lego platform in a competitive and educational environment. Maersk Oil Qatar operates one of the world’s most complex oil fields, at Al Shaheen, so my hope is that many of these students will use their interest in STEM subjects and become future leaders in Qatar’s energy industry., said Sheikh Faisal.
Dr Theodore Chiasson, Dean of Information Technology at the College of the North Atlantic - Qatar and the World Robot Olympiad representative in Qatar, said: “The World Robot Olympiad is a chance for Qatar students to compete against the best in the world but also to enrich their lives by learning more about different cultures through exchanging ideas and meeting new friends. I am sure they will do Qatar proud.”
The Peninsula
