HR4RS stamp
Irene Vega
The main objective of the 'Robotic Games 2022' championship, free and online, is to promote scientific and technical vocations among young people through an approach to the world of programming. The participants, secondary school and high school students, had to program a robot in Scratch language so that it would follow a black line on the ground and at the same time dodge the obstacles that it encountered along the way, such as a soccer ball and a golf ball. basketballs blocking their way. All this in an agile way because the higher the speed of the robot, the higher the score.
This tournament has been organized by the group @RoboticsLabURJC and has had the collaboration of the educational robotics web platform Kibotics, which has broadcast the final phase of the championship through its twitch's channel.
One of the missions of the @RoboticsLabURJC research group is to promote scientific-technical vocations among young people by presenting technology in a fun and stimulating way. "The need to promote technical vocations is still present," says José María Cañas Plaza, researcher of the @RoboticsLabURJC group and coordinator of the activity. He also points out that "strengthening the attractiveness of scientific-technical careers is an ongoing task, it is still necessary in a scenario in which many factors (expected difficulty, expected salary, usefulness, trends...) influence which careers students choose. university students to train.
This initiative is part of the program of activities of the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit (UCC+I), dependent on the Vice President for Research, and has the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT)-Ministry of Science and Innovation.
Organizing robotics championships since 2004
In 2004 the @RoboticsLabURJC group created the RoboCampeones competition, whose first five editions were held at the Rey Juan Carlos University. Around this championship a community of interested teachers and educational centers was formed, which has continued to organize and make the competition grow throughout these years.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the RoboCampeones 2020, 2021 and 2022 editions had to be cancelled. In order not to let another year go by without a robotic tournament, @RoboticsLabURJC contacted Kibotics in 2021 to launch the online championship "Robotic Games" with the same objectives as RoboCampeones: to promote scientific-technical vocations among young people in a playful and attractive way. After the success of the first edition, this year the second has been organized and work is already under way on the next "Robotic Games 2023".