A robotics championship for young people
1 May 2015
News
The FIRST Robotics Open African Championships competition is creating an opportunity for our future engineers and innovators to display their talent and passion for robotics. This is a first for Africa, with 84 local and international teams participating.
FLL introduces younger students to the world of engineering by giving them the opportunity to build Lego-based robots. The FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is a natural progression once primary school children outgrow the FLL and need a bigger challenge to keep them interested in engineering.
The first day of the show saw 12 local teams competing in the FTC with their robots which had to score by shooting balls into a goalpost. “This is a big step up for us. At the last show we only had a 6 x 6 metre stand,” says Johannes de Vries from operational partner, Tshwane University of Technology. “What we would love to see is more collaboration between the schoolkids and the engineering community. Often they have engineering materials at their disposal but don’t always know how to use them, an example being what sensors to use in the servos. As a case in point, Vega Instruments has adopted a team and has been very involved, and this is what we need. One idea would be to have a blog where students could pose their questions and industry experts could advise accordingly.”
The second show day sees 34 international teams and 11 local teams competing in the FLL on a playing field where the robots have to carry out 14 missions autonomously. Come over to the FLL stands and see for yourself the talent and enthusiasm that these young people show.
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