HR4RS stamp
Irene Vega
The 'Robotic Games 2023' championship, free and online, has as its main objective to promote scientific and technical vocations among young people through an approach to the world of programming. The participants, secondary and high school students, had to program a robot in Scratch language to follow a line on the ground and at the same time dodge obstacles that were along the way, such as a soccer ball and a basketball. that blocked his path. All this in an agile way because the higher the speed of the robot, the higher the score was obtained.
This tournament has been organized by the group @RoboticsLabURJC and has had the collaboration with the educational robotics web platform Kibotics, which has broadcast the final phase of the championship through its Twitch channel. The summary can be seen at YouTube.
One of the missions of the @RoboticsLabURJC research group is to encourage scientific-technical vocations among young people by presenting technology in a fun and stimulating way. "Organizing this tournament has a short-term result, with the participants enjoying the excitement of learning and competing by programming robots, and another medium-term result, cultivating a quarry for technical degrees, such as those offered by the URJC, for example. , the Degree in Software Robotics Engineering”, points out José María Cañas Plaza, researcher of the @RoboticsLabURJC group and coordinator of the activity.
This initiative is part of the program of activities of the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit (UCC+I), dependent on the Office of the Vice President for Research, Innovation and Transfer, 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.
As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, RoboCampeones has not continued to be held and, since 2021, @RoboticsLabURJC collaborates with Kibotics in the organization and online championship "Robotic Games", a tournament that continues with the same objectives of RoboCampeones: to promote scientific vocations -techniques among young people in a playful and attractive way.