Robotics World Competition features teams from the Middle East

posted on: Apr 21, 2015

St Louis is hosting a Robotics world event, FIRST Championship, this April, 22 through 25. This is a competition of robotics teams made up of students of ages 9 to 16 years, from around the world.

The Arab countries and the Middle East will be represented by teams from Egypt, Jordan (2), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

The competing teams have won the robotics competitions in their countries and in the Middle East region, and hence qualified to compete in this wonderful event. These bright students are full of energy and determination. They represent a bright and hopeful spirit that dispels the painful and gloomy images we see daily from the Middle East region.

The World Festival web site describes this event as: “The FIRST Championship is the culmination of the season’s FIRST programs, bringing together three separate robotics competitions for the ultimate Sport for the Mind™. The event includes the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Championship, the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) World Championship, and the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) World Festival.“

The FIRST Challenge is more than a robotics program. It is community oriented and it is focused on building a better world for tomorrow by engaging students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). It teaches students the value of hard work and innovation, while working together in teams, sharing ideas and treating each other with respect and dignity.

Last year, several of the teams from the Middle East won prizes. The second place winner over all was a team from Lebanon. A great achievement knowing that there were over 80 teams from around the world!

We had the pleasure of being with the team from Lebanon last year and experienced the high spirit and energy of this event. It is great source of pride!

We invite you to follow this event and support the teams by following them on their face book and other sites. The web site for the FIRST Championship is:

http://www.firstlegoleague.org/event/worldfestival

Stay tuned. We will let you know the results. Meantime, stay hopeful, we have brilliant youth in the Middle East!