DOHA, QATAR – American School of Doha is the overall champion of the 7th Regional Botball Robotics Challenge that was held at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar on Friday. Al Mawakeb School from UAE and Doha College were the 2nd and 3rd place winners in an exciting double elimination challenge with enthusiastic crowds of family and friends cheering the teams on.
“We are so ecstatic to be awarded first place. We had a few complications at the beginning but then we all worked together to overcome the obstacles. The experience was so rewarding and I am so proud to be a part of the winning team” said Badhur Hansen, one of the programmers and builders of the winning team. “We are all so happy to get the chance to go to California for the 2011 International Botball tournament. We worked really hard but the time and effort spent on our project paid off.” said Adrian Bergdal who worked on documentation and building.
This year’s challenge had around 180 students from 24 schools around the Middle East region participating in the final regional challenge with schools from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar competing. The 2011 program is sponsored by Shell, Qatar. The regional participation and interest in the robotics tournament has increased significantly since Carnegie Mellon brought Botball to the region in 2005 with four teams taking part in the inaugural event.
Botball is an action packed robotics challenge for middle and high-school students that develops excitement, knowledge, and practical understanding through hands-on experience with science, technology, engineering, and math. Students learn to program their robots using C, the most widely used programming language in industry and academia. Botball gives students the tools to develop sophisticated strategies using artificial intelligence with embedded systems.
“This year has seen the next generation of high school students take on a new robotics challenge in the annual Carnegie Mellon regional Botball competition. Students from schools from across the region brought the robots that they have been building and programming for the last two months to Carnegie Mellon Qatar in Education City and compete for the right to be called Botball region champions. Robotics is a great tool to teach students about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics along with program management skills. Many of these students will come to Education City as undergraduates to further deepen these skills and will be the driving force for the growing Knowledge Economy in Qatar and the region. Moreover, it is exactly these skills that we put to use as Computer Science researchers to develop robots that can drive themselves, perform inspection in oil and gas plants, through to robots that can aid in disaster response operations like those going on with the nuclear and Tsunami recovery efforts in Japan.” said Brett Browning, Ph.D., Senior Systems Scientist, Carnegie Mellon University.
“Qatar Shell is delighted to be partnering with Carnegie Mellon University Qatar and sponsoring the Botball program.” Said Robert Munster, Shell’s Vice President for Health, Safety, Environment, and Sustainable Development. “I was truly impressed by the effort the students had put into this program and the very creative robot designs and competition strategy. We encourage young students to take innovative approaches to solve problems and hope that programs like this inspire them to continue pursuing a technical career. The aim of such contests is to give students an opportunity to apply their scientific and technological skills, and to ultimately contribute to Qatar’s human development, in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030” he added.
The annual Botball season kicked off in Doha with a two-day workshop on January 28 and 29. At these workshops participants received information about the competition and were given robot kits and reusable components to build their own robot. The students learned about current robotics technologies and how to apply the physics and math concepts to design, build and program the competing robots to maneuver autonomously across a game board, performing tasks according to the program theme.
The theme of this year’s competition is titled ‘Botville Airport Renovation’ where the students’ must score points for completing specified tasks around green energy and sustainability initiatives implemented at an international airport – from baggage management, to bio-fuel storage to erecting a control tower. The winner is the team whose robot scored the most points with the best time.
American School of Doha will receive a trip to Anaheim, California in July to attend the 2011 Global Conference on Educational Robotics and meet middle school and high school students, robot enthusiasts, and professionals from around the world, and to compete in the 2011 International Botball Tournament.
Participating schools at the regional final tournament were:
– From Qatar: Ahmed Ben Mohammed Al Thani Independent Secondary School, Al Bayan Independent Secondary School for Girls, Al Ieman Independent Secondary School for Girls, Al Khor International School, Al Wakra Independent Secondary School, American School of Doha, Doha College, Doha Independent Secondary School, DPS-Modern Indian School, Hamza Prep. Independent School, Lebanese School, Lycee Bonaparte, Omar bin Al Khattab Secondary School for Boys, Qatar Academy, Raba’a Independent Secondary School for Girls
– From the United Arab Emirates: Al Mawakeb School – Al Barsha, Al Mawakeb School – Al Garhoud, American Community School of Abu Dhabi, International School of Arts & Sciences
– From Bahrain: Ibn Khuldoon National School
– From Saudi Arabia: Al Riyadh School for Boys, Al Riyadh School for Girls, – From Kuwait: Al Ry’ya Bilingual School, The British School of Kuwait
