Following last year’s debut appearance at rAge expo, and in anticipation of WRO Canada, the World Robot Olympiad (WRO) will be sharing video content which includes highlights from previous events, success stories and inspiring educational content.
A global robotics event
The WRO brings science, technology, education and robotics together, to inspire young people’s creativity and develop problem-solving skills through challenging and educational robotics competitions.
While COVID-19 forced the cancellation of a real-world robotics competition at rAge this year, WRO will be sharing a selection of content in the lead up to the global WRO competition, WRO Canada 2020 X.
WRO Canada is a virtual event that is scheduled for the weekend of 12-15 November – just a week after rAge. And South African teams are eligible to register via the WRO Canada website. The international competition will incorporate virtual robotic toolkits and challenges in several categories.
The competition
The aim of the WRO is to give as many young people as possible the opportunity to develop their creativity and problem-solving skills in a fun and engaging way. WRO does this by hosting competitions for participants starting from as young as six years old, and all the way up to university level.
WRO competitions span 85 countries in five main categories:
- Regular Elementary 6 – 12 years
- Junior 13 – 15 years
- Senior 16 – 19 years
- Sports 15 – 19 years
- Future Engineers 18 – 25 years
Learning goes online
Local content includes coverage of WRO’s Township Robotics project in Atteridgeville, which has seen 200 children mentored annually in robotics and programming for the last 10 years. There is also an opportunity to learn more about the Supernova virtual robotics toolkit, which is available online, and discover WRO’s Robot Virtual Games. The Robot Virtual Games is a platform that uses coding to gamify education in robotics, through simulations and virtual toolkits.
Danie Heymans from WRO SA says, “The buzz about robotics and coding in South Africa is growing. We hope to expand young people’s horizons by ultimately incorporating robotics and coding into school curriculums.
“We see so much potential in the underprivileged areas we work in. And we hope to maximise that in the years ahead. rAge Digital is a fantastic starting point for anyone who wants to know more about the growing tech business. We hope the variety of content we share will inspire and light that spark that gets our next generation of great minds thinking”.
