Good news from the national finals of the “FIRST Tech Challenge” robotics competition, held at the end of last week in Iasi. The robotics team of the Galati County Center of Excellence, RoSophia #21455, qualified for the world stage of the competition, which will take place in Houston, USA.
The “masters of the robots”, as we nicknamed the members of the RoSophia #21455 team from Galati, returned from the national stage of the “FIRST Tech Challenge” competition with numerous prizes, but also with a qualification for the world stage, which will took place between April 17-20, 2024, in Houston, United States of America.
“FIRST Tech Challenge” is the largest robotics program in the world and was brought to Romania eight years ago by the “Nation through Education” Association. The participants remind us every year that it is not only about robots, but about the machines that build the people of tomorrow.
The adventure of the RoSophia members began at the regional stage, two weeks ago, when they were part of the winning alliance, on which occasion I wrote about them, and continued with three days of fire, in which the young people played the qualification matches, had interviews of judging at the stand and, obviously, they contested the final.
The RoSophia team was awarded twice, obtaining INSPIRE AWARD WINNER – 2nd place and FINALIST ALLIANCE – 2ND TEAM SELECTED.
The “INSPIRE AWARD” award is given to the team that shined in all judging categories and that represents an example of professionalism, fair play and elegance for the other teams, both on and off the field.
The prizes obtained place the team from Galaţi in 3rd place in the general ranking, out of 197 teams that started. The place ensures the team’s qualification to the world stage, alongside the teams Ro2D2 (Ploiesti, “Mihai Viteazul” National College), AICitizens (Focșani, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” National College) and Watt’s Up (Câmpulung, “Dinicu Golescu” National College).
How complicated was it to get here? Sometimes they had a chaotic schedule, they cut back on sleep hours, but nothing is very difficult, if you want it enough and you are passionate about what you do.
And, since we’ve obviously talked more about the human component of the team so far, I asked them to tell me something sensational about their robot. “Well, he holds the world record for points in the period of autonomy, namely 186, together with that of the CyLiis team from Iasi, he had the best individual autonomy in the national 2+6 and, in terms of offensive capacity, he is in the top 50 of those 7,000 robots in the world'”, said Alexandru Dănuţ Dominică, the leader of RoSophia.
Congratulations to the roboticists from Galaţi, teachers and parents for their performance, success in the USA and we await them with good news!
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