Syria becomes member of World Robot Olympiad

Syria has officially gained membership of the World Robot Olympiad after the consent of the latter’s Board of Trustees. The Syrian Computer Society (SCS) had earlier submitted a request to join the non-profit organization, now including 50 members, to officially represent Syria in organizing local competitions and participating in the organization’s international competitions.
In late November, Syria reached the finals of the 11th World Robot Olympiad Russia 2014 that were held in the Russian city of Sochi, coming in the fifth place internationally after competing with 400 teams from 47 countries.
Syria, however, was ranked first on the Arab level in the competitions that included 48 teams from 11 Arab countries. The Syrian participation covered two categories: the Junior High age group and the Senior High age group, with the two groups tackling a challenge focusing on clearing space debris and a challenge focusing on checking solar panels and replacing them, respectively.
Director of the Syrian Robotics team, Muhib al-Neqri, who is member of the SCS Board of Directors, said Syria’s accession to the international organization will highly contribute to promoting and spreading robotics in the country, which is being helped by the increasing attention given to the competitions by various scientific and education institutions.
Through this accession, he added, the Syrian team will have the opportunity to take part in the various robotics activities, which would further contribute to sharpening the team members’ skills towards developing an advanced national robotics industry.
The World Robot Olympiad is a global robotics competition for young people between the ages of 13 and 19, and was held for the first time in 2004 in Singapore. The teams participating in its main event, the regular competition, must build a robot to tackle specific challenges and carry out tasks set by the event’s organizers.
There are also college competitions, open competitions where contestants build a robot with a specific theme, and football competitions where two teams’ robots compete in miniature football matches.