Seven winning teams will represent the UAE in the international World Robot Olympiad competition in November

Abu Dhabi, Sept 26, 2021: The three-day UAE National World Robot Olympiad (WRO) 2021 starts on October 1. The competition is organised by Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK). 

Over 800 students from across the UAE’s education ecosystem of private and public schools, charter schools and universities are going to participate in the competition.

This year’s theme is ‘Powerbots – the Future of Energy’. Teams in three categories will be required to use robotics to solve real-life problems including how to make home energy consumption more efficient, provide solutions for charging electric cars, help manage the energy mix on the national grid and design self-driving cars that use sensors to avoid obstacles.

A virtual competition that will be held between October 1-3, will challenge 308 teams on their robotics and STEM subject skills and knowledge in three categories. Seven winning teams will go on to represent the UAE at the international World Robot Olympiad in November 2021.

Khuloud Al Dhaheri, ADEK’s Executive Director, Education Partnerships Sector, says, “This is the 13th year that the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK) has organized the WRO National competition which aligns with the UAE strategy to build a competitive knowledge-based economy. The skills that students hone over the course of the competition, include not only critical robotics and STEM skills but also soft-skills such as creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking – skills that all students are required to develop as we continue to see the rapid digital transformation of global business and industry.”

Teams of up to three members and a coach will submit their video entries to be evaluated by a panel of 38 judges who were selected based on their competency from 92 candidates to assess teams’ entries against the Robot Olympiad’s strict judging criteria, ensuring that each team had abided by the competition’s principles and code of ethics.

In the ‘Regular’ category, students aged 8 to 19 years are tasked to design, build and program robots to solve specific challenges within a set timescale. The ‘Open’ category is a project-based competition where students create an innovative intelligent robotics solution relating to the season’s theme. In the ‘Future Engineers’ category, students aged 15-19 will be tasked with designing a model car, equipping it with electromechanical components and programming it to successfully and autonomously navigate an obstacle track.