Exciting times lie ahead for Year 7 Marymede students Marc Lando, Leo Karakatsanis and Christian Nicolaou, all of whom have recently been selected to represent Marymede Catholic College as the first ever Australian team to compete at World Educational Robot Competition held in Shanghai, China.
The World Educational Robot Competition (known as WER) is an international robot contest for teenagers from 4 to 18. Annually, more than 500,000 contestants from 50 countries participate in WER contests.
Our students, whom have been generously sponsored by Centrecom, Sunshine to attend the competition, are looking forward to their exciting opportunity in the land of the Red Dragon. “I’m really looking forward to the experience and spending time with my robotics teammates but also the atmosphere of the whole event which is going to be huge” says Christian.
Our students will work as a team of 3 using robots made by Abilix – a world-leading educational robotics company - to design, build and program a robot to navigate a game mat and solve tasks around the 2018 theme “Information Era”. The boys have developed their Team Name ‘Robo Roos’ and logo, and have been working together in their lunchtime Robotics Club developing their abilities in robot design and programming as well as teamwork and innovation.
Digital Technologies at Marymede Catholic College has gone from strength to strength in the past 3 years thanks to the dedication and commitment of Staff member Ms. Kylie Buttigieg who continues to work on new and innovative programs and opportunities for our students.
Ms. Buttigieg said that these three boys were the ideal candidates to lead Team Marymede in Shanghai due to their longstanding commitment to Robotics Club and the keen enthusiasm and energy they brought to the program. Leo claimed that what he liked most about coding was "solving problems and progressing through different stages of problem solving through using technology”, whilst Marc has always had a keen interest in digital technologies: “I remember starting to code around 4 years ago because I just had this fascination with computing and robots”.
This year’s contest is just the beginning for Marymede, who will host the Australian leg of the WER here on College grounds in 2019 – with Ms. Buttigieg’s Robotics Crew already training for next year’s event.
The Robo Roos will depart for Shanghai, China on December 13 for the two-day competition. We wish them all the very best in their endeavours and acknowledge the support of Centrecom, Sunshine for their sponsorship.
The Robo Roos will depart for Shanghai, China on December 13 for the two-day competition. We wish them all the very best in their endeavours and acknowledge the support of Centrecom, Sunshine for their sponsorship.