Gold for Vaslui at the International Festival of Science, Engineering and Technology, in Tunisia

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Robert Mereuță, from the robotics group of the Vaslui County Center of Excellence (CJEx), a student in the 9th grade at the “Emil Racoviță” High School, won the gold medal and the first prize in the category of Applied Sciences with the Counter Strike prototype project, at I-Fest2 2024, held March 22-28, in Mahdia, Tunisia.

The objective of the project was to develop a platform with a robotic arm that imitates human gestures and is controlled by the user using IOT protocol. This robot is used in high risk conditions such as handling dangerous goods or in toxic environment. The user controlling the robot will install accelerometer sensors on his arm, turn on the sensor and the chassis and wait for the connection to the MQTT server, then the robot arm will imitate the user’s arm, thus managing to work in less secure environments.

“It is my first participation in an international competition and I am very grateful for this experience. On the first day, I set up the stand, put the posters, reports and the robot on the stand. A lot of people came to my stand to explain to them the role of my robot. On this day I met a lot of people from different parts of the world. In the evening, when it was the official opening event of the competition, I received a flag from the organizers to go on stage to represent the country. On the second day I was visited by three different jurors who were very interested in my project. Before the award ceremony, 21 projects were posted that were in the top 10. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I got the gold medal. Also, I was very impressed by the organization and the excursions and I consider my participation in this contest to be a unique experience that I will never forget! I would like to thank Professor Chirițescu Carmen for her expert guidance, the County Center of Excellence and Vaslui City Hall for their financial support and, last but not least, my parents for their unconditional support!”, said Robert Mereuță.

Along with Robert Mereuță, from the delegation of the Vaslui County Center of Excellence, present at the International Festival of Engineering Science and Technology in Tunisia, the student Denis Chirițescu and the coordinating teacher Ana Carmen Chirițescu were also part of it.

“We were pleasantly impressed by the organization of the competition. Every activity, every visit to tourist attractions was very well organized. While the competition took place, the teachers took part in STEM conferences and Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality workshops.

I learned about the Colosseum in Tunisia, called the Amphitheater of El Jem, an impressive construction similar to the famous Colosseum in Rome.

Another day I visited the Great Mosque of Kairouan founded in 670. I learned a lot about the history and civilization of Tunisians at the National Museum of Brado. In City Science in Tunis we visited the Astronomical Observatory.

At the Cultural Night, the students prepared a short artistic moment wanting to present a song and a dance specific to Romania. We were pleasantly impressed to see dances and songs from all over the globe.

Another interesting workshop was Z-Generation, where participants developed ideas and plans for the future. They were divided into groups and each group debated a topic. The Romanian team had the “Food on Mars” project. We are proud that we returned home with a very important prize from this extremely serious international competition and we represented Vaslui county with honor. We are very grateful to the director of the Vaslui County Center of Excellence and the Vaslui City Hall for the financial support of the trip,” said Prof. Ana Carmen Chirițescu.

The International Festival of Engineering Science and Technology, I-Fest2 2024 annually brings together more than 40 countries from all over the globe. Thus, young people from Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Poland, Belgium, Jordan, Georgia, Italy, Ukraine, India, Tunisia, Malaysia, Mexico, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Thailand, Ecuador, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Uganda, Japan presented scientific projects in fields such as applied sciences, social sciences, environmental science, computer science, multimedia, mathematics, biology.

Robert Mereuță won first prize with this project at the Rosef 2023 National Competition, held in Suceava. He is a student with potential, of whom CJEx Vaslui is proud.

“Congratulations from the bottom of my heart to our student, Robert Mereuță from the robotics group in Vaslui, for the exceptional result obtained at the international profile competition in Tunisia. Also, all appreciation for Mrs. Ana Carmen Chirițescu, the robotics group tutor. It is yet another proof that the training of students in the performance groups organized by the Vaslui County Center of Excellence is more than necessary and can fulfill any child’s dream of achieving success!” said Prof. Gabriela Plăcintă, director of CJEx Vaslui.