The Winner of the National Stage of the World Robot Olympiad Revealed

On July 19, the national stage of the World Robot Olympiad took place. The Ayb Educational Foundation has been  organizing and conducting the national stage of the WRO in Armenia since 2016. The aim of this competition is to develop students' logic and engineering capacities, contributing to the practical application of theoretical knowledge and stimulating students' creativity. In total, 16 teams participated in the competition this year, which is twice as much as last year's figure. The WRO’s participants were students aged 8-19, in the respective age groups: elementary (ten teams), junior (four teams) and senior (two teams). At the opening ceremony of the competition, Sona Koshetsyan, executive director of the Ayb Educational Foundation, highlighted the fact that over the years, the WRO has turned into a unique movement in the field of Lego education, which brings together a large number of students, coaches and organizations interested in robotics. We can record that we have a stable community united around this field. The number of partners and sponsors joining the WRO is increasing. This year's sponsor of the competition was Rostelecom, while the partner was Zigzag company.

According to Tatev Adamyan, head of the contests department of the Ayb Educational Foundation, it is extremely delighting to see the continuous increase in the number of students interested in robotics, and especially the fact that the number of girls involved in robotics is three times as high as that of 2016 when the competition was first held.

In 2022, the competition was held in the RoboMission and Future Innovators categories. Half of the 16 teams participating in the WRO national stage represented marzes (Shirak, Kotayk, Syunik). The Gittun 1 team from Kapan was recognized as the best in the elementary age group. It also won the main prize, a ticket to Germany to participate in the WRO International.  The Best Trio team won in the junior age group, and the PhysMath team was the best in the senior age group. Lyova Saroyan, member of Gyumri's Mush team, who was going to join the RA Armed Forces the day after the competition, was awarded a special prize. Narek Saroyan, another member of the Mush team, was also awarded a special prize, for the offer of a unique solution to the problem.

The motto of this year's competition is "My Robot My Friend." During the competition, the students tried to achieve their ultimate goal, i.e. to make human life more comfortable and safer through robots. Now we look forward to the successful performance of the winning team this fall in Dortmund, Germany.