News

Recently, we sent three teams of students to Phnom Penh to compete in the World Robot Olympiad (WRO) run by STEM Cambodia. WRO tournaments are organized in more than 65 countries and help students develop their creativity and problem-solving skills through challenging and educational robotics competitions.

The students were competing in the junior section, which required the use of Lego Mindstorms robots and software. Their mission was to design, build and program a robot to move colored pieces, representing smart light globes, around the competition area.

Robotics and coding teacher, Mr. Engelen, said, “Maly and Channra performed very well, and I thought they may well have finished in first place. In the end, they finished equal first on points and third in the time taken, which was a good result but something we aim to improve. Tokla and Visal learned a valuable lesson about robot design and the placement of their color sensor. The placed their sensor too high, and due to the different lighting used during the competition compared to school, no matter how they adjusted their program, the robot failed to follow the pathways on the mat.”

Channra said, “We were in the lead until the last round and we ended up joint first on points. However, because our time was slower than the competitors, we came third.”

Tokla said, “We encountered problems with our color sensor and while trying to correct it, Visal and I were able to learn debugging skills relating to color tracking and using ‘if/else’ statements. However, we were unable to overcome the flaws with our initial robot design during the short time allowed for the competition. We will be much better prepared for the competition next year because of this experience.”

Monita added, “During the competition, I focused on building the robot while my teammate, Minea, checked our programs. On the first trial, we scored no points as the robot failed to pick up any pieces. Thus, we changed our strategy, focusing on pieces that were a single color. By reprogramming, we were able to score points.”

Thanks to Mr. Engelen for preparing the students. The prospects for next year’s WRO are looking bright.