Phl to defend World Robotics Olympiad title

MANILA, Philippines - At least 20 teams of students from various schools who won in the recently concluded Philippine Robotics Olympiad (PRO) will participate in the 2013 World Robotics Olympiad in Indonesia on Nov. 15 to 17.

Among the winners were students from Dr. Yangas College Inc. (DYCI), Grace Christian College (GCC) and Claret School in Quezon City, who will defend the title in the high school open category.

The teams from DYCI and GCC won gold and silver medals, respectively, in the high school open category in last year’s World Robot Olympiad held in Malaysia.

“It’s important for us to encourage our students to be our future scientists, inventors and engineers,” said PRO national organizer Mylene Abiva during the awarding ceremony at SM North Edsa on Wednesday.

“I believe that critical thinkers are very important in society and this will make a better Philippines,” she added.

Abiva said she is confident that the country would not only defend its title, but also bag awards in other categories.

PRO participants competed in the regular, open and robot soccer categories.

Entrees in the regular category were required to complete field challenges using LEGO robotics that were being manipulated by microcomputers.

The participants had to design programs to enable the robotic vehicles to complete challenges such as color detection.

Meanwhile, participants in the open category were tasked to design robots that seek to develop, promote, conserve and protect World Heritage Sites in the Philippines.

Teams from DYCI, GCC, Sto. Cristo Elem School, and Mater Dei Academy would also participate in the open category for elementary students.

Competing in the regular elementary category are teams from Marie Ernestine School, Tibagan Elementary School-B, and Science and Technology Education Teams A and B.

Participants in the regular high school category include teams from the Science and Technology Education Center- Science and Technology High School, Benigno S. Aquino High School-B, Dr. Caridad C. Labe Education Centrex Inc.-A and the Philippine Science High School (PHSH)-Bicol Campus-B.

Meanwhile, competing in the robot soccer category are teams from PHHS-Bicol Campus (Teams A and B), Benigno S. Aquino High School, and Nemesia Yabut Elementary School.

The country will also send a team from DYCI to compete in a category for college students.

Abiva said more than 150 teams from various elementary and public schools joined the competition this year, more than double from last year.

The number of participants in expected to increase next year as PRO plans to open the competition to college students.

Robotics in curriculum

Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Undersecretary Fortunato dela Peña said the robotics Olympiad trains young Filipinos to be able to compete in the global community and challenges their creativity.

“(Robotics) is really one of the emerging areas identified as one of the priority fields of learning,” he added, noting that PSHS —which is under the jurisdiction of DOST — has robotics in its curriculum.

RC Pineda, supervising officer of the DYCI teams, said they are happy with the double victory they achieved in the open category for elementary and high school levels.

The high school team from DYCI bagged the world championship last year.

“There’s pres-sure to duplicate that victory. We are more technical now, our robots are cleaner. Our functions are more on the dot. We’re optimistic,” said Pineda.