Around 500 students from across the Arab world took part in a two day robotics competition in Jordan.
The event was organized by the Arab Robotics Association and held at the Dead Sea’s King Hussein Bin Talal Convention Centre.
The participants, aged between 9 and 25 years old, came from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen and Oman.
Organizer said the aim was to make science interesting for students.
“This event focuses on the science of robotics and presents it to the students in an entertaining way. The teams compete with each other for two days in designing and programming robots to do specific tasks in accordance with the criteria set by the Arab Robotics Association for these activities and competitions,” said Ismail Hassan, director of the Jubilee Centre for Excellence in Education.
The students seemed to be enthusiastic about the competition.
One student, Yahia Obeido from Jordan, said his team has been working on their robot for six months.
“We worked on this robot for around six months, constantly training and even during holiday time we used to work on it daily by programming and designing it. During exam time, we worked hard to make this robot ready which is really precious because this is our six-month work,” he said.
The robots are set specific tasks to complete, and teams are given points based on whether or not their robot can complete the tasks.
Omani student Eiman said the robots could carry out complex tasks.
“Robots have artificial intelligence and can provide a number of services including surgeries, education and helping others and this can help boost the academic and intelligence levels of students,” she said.
The Arab Robotics Association was founded in 2011, and aims at promoting robotics research in the Arab world.
The group’s aims include disseminating the culture and science of robotics to Arab youth and encouraging and promoting robotics research in the region.
(Reuters)
