Young and old visitors to what was billed as Malta’s largest technology event were encouraged to develop their creativity and problem-solving skills through educational challenges over the weekend.

Organised by the Education Ministry in partnership with Go, the Malta Robotics Olympiad, held at the MFCC in Ta’ Qali, showcased cutting-edge robotics originating from educational and commercial entities.

In conjunction with the Malta Robotics Olym-piad, the Design and Technology Expo attracted students to exhibit their innovative product design projects, electronics, graphics, projects with custom-built materials and hands-on designs.

The idea behind the DIY robot challenge was to look for new talent in design, technology and robotics engineering.

This is the third year for the expo, organised by the Design and Technology Learning Centre in the Department of Education. This year, the star robot at the event was a movie replica of R2-D2 from the Star Wars franchise, which was joined by star robots from previous years, BB8 and Wall-E.

This year, the expo invited participants to submit their own do-it-yourself robot. The idea behind the challenge was to look for new talent in the area of design, technology and robotics engineering.

James Catania, education officer at the Education Ministry, said the Malta Robotics Olympiad was an opportunity for all the family to peer into “an exciting future which is in fact just around the corner.”