The World Robot Olympiad (WRO) in Saudi Arabia opens tomorrow at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Olympic Complex in Riyadh.
The tournament is organized by Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) in partnership with a number of government and private entities, including the Ministry of Education, the Saudi Federation of Cyber Security and Programming, King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology and the Saudi Wireless and Remote Control Sports Federation.
WRO 2019 in Saudi Arabia is sponsored by ThinkTech, an initiative launched by MCIT that explores technology developments, achieving sustainable development and building an innovative and informed generation, all integrated with the Kingdom's Vision 2030. It aims to enhance the role of the ICT sector in building a digital society, digital government and a thriving digital economy throughout the Kingdom.
ThinkTech is linkedto the STEAM approach, an educational method which focuses on the use ofscience, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics as access points foryouth in robotics and artificial intelligence applications. Eight hundredtrainees have benefited from the ThinkTech platform, paving the way for thelocal, regional and international WRO competitions.
Three hundredcontenders will compete in the 2019 competition in four categories and four agegroups. The Regular Category, where teams design, construct and program theirrobots to solve specific challenges in a field for four age groups — up to 10years, Elementary (up to 12 years). Junior (13-15 years) and Senior (16-19years); the Open Category where participants create their own intelligentrobotics solution relating to the current theme of the season, which is for twoage groups (13-15 years and 16-19 years); the Football Category of autonomousrobots playing football, which is for one age category (10-19 years old); andthe Advanced Robotics Challenge, where games are designed to test older andmore experienced students' engineering and programming skills to the limit, andis for one age group (17-25 years old).
The winners willqualify for the first time for the WRO 2019 International Final to be held inGyor, Hungary, on Nov. 8-10.
