In 2011, the Department of eLearning held the first edition of the Malta Robotics Olympiad, which coincided with the introduction in the same scholastic year of the Lego Education Mindstorms NXT robotic kits in the computing secondary curriculum. Students aged 13 to 15 years taking computing as an option subject could participate in the first robotics challenge of this kind in Malta. In its first three editions, the event was held as part of the annual Embed fair held by the eLearning centre. In these last two years, the event has evolved into a unique local initiative with more participating teams and other entities collaborating with the Department of eLearning. The event has also changed its name to Malta Robotics Olympiad.
The Department of eLearning and the Department of Curriculum within the Ministry of Education and Employment and the Malta Council for Science and Technology are for the second year organising the Malta Robotics Olympiad. This is supported by IMS Limited and this year also by Trelleborg Sealing Solutions Malta Limited.
This year’s challenge was open to any student between the ages of eight and 20. All state and non-state secondary schools have been invited to participate. Consisting of two categories and completely free to participate in, this challenge provides both participants and the general public an opportunity to build and programme robots in a fun-filled day surrounded by robotic technology. This year’s edition will be held on Wednesday, April 22, at the Bocci Drome Hall, Cottonera Sports Complex.
The objectives of this activity have been linked to those of the World Robots Olympiad, an international robotic competition which brings together young people from all over the world to develop their creativity, design and problem solving skills through challenging and educational robot competitions and activities. The objectives are to provide students up to the age of 20 an opportunity to expand their horizons through exploration of robots and robotic systems in school, introduce the concept of modern science into school’s educational activities in science and technology, provide an opportunity to promote creative thinking, improve communications and cooperation skills to strengthen the ability to acquire new knowledge highly relevant towards progressive education, widen the youth’s view in the application of science and technology, improve their learning efficiency and encourage youths to be future scientists, engineers and inventors.
This year is being celebrated by the UN as the International Year of Light. The tasks set out for this year’s MRO are based on the same theme: light. Participants had the opportunity to decide between two categories: regular or open. In the regular category, students will work on building and programming a robot using the Lego Education Mindstorms kits which are used in secondary schools. The robot will need to accomplish set tasks that were launched back in November. In the open category, each team needs to deliver a robotic project that is loosely related to this year’s theme: light.
On April 22 in the morning, more than 20 teams of primary and secondary students will be participating in this challenge. An adult coach and two or three team members will use their creativity and problem solving skills to build and program a robot which will solve a preset task. Peer students will be attending to cheer their fellow classmates while participating in hands-on workshops. In the evening, winners will be announced while the general public is invited to attend for a design and technology expo, open category presentations, view interactive displays and related robotic activities. The Design and Technology Department will be extending the exhibition on April 23 in the morning and will be open to all students and the general public.
For more information visit www.robotsmalta.org and www.facebook.com/MaltaRoboticsOlympiad.