I’m always impressed with the younger generation nowadays because of their creativity and logic when it comes to providing solution for the betterment of the environment using technology in the recent Brunei Robotics Olympiad 2015. Well, in this case, the students were using Lego Mindstorms (series of kits contain software and hardware to create customizable, programmable robots) to come up with possible solutions and tasks.

Last week, the competition among schools concluded and the winners were feted for their creativity and efforts. Sarah Abu Bakar, Acting Head of the Science, Technology and Environment Partnership (STEP) Centre, shared that there weren’t any outstanding solutions and still lacking that consistency and satisfactory level. However, overall there is an improvements as compared to last year’s entries.

For your information, one of the Brunei team made it to the Top 10 in last year’s World Robotic Olympiad 2014 in Sochi, Russia and I had a great experience, covering the event (Thanks Bluebox Services and STEP). Let’s hope for a similar feat or perhaps a better placing for this year’s WRO 2015 which will be held in Doha, Qatar.

A total of 177 students from 35 schools competed in the Regular Category, which required participants to build robots for challenges titled Pearl Diving, Treasure Hunt and Mountaineering. The competition was organised by the STEP Centre in collaboration with Bluebox Services and supported by Brunei Economic Development Board together with Sasbadi Holdings Bhd. The guest of honour was Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB) Acting CEO Hjh Hasnah Hj Ibrahim.

I was also happy that St. Andrew’s School won in both categories that it participated in (Open category for Primary and Secondary) since it was my former school 😀 Even my friend Heidi is a proud parent as her daughter bagged first place.

The winner of Open category (Year 10 to Year 12) – Team Wise – St. Andrew’s School with Hjh Hasnah Hj Ibrahim, Acting CEO of Brunei Economic Development Board (2nd from right) and Sarah Abu Bakar, Acting Head of the Science, Technology and Environment Partnership (STEP) Centre (right)

2nd place of Open category (Year 10 to Year 12) – SAMSUA Technobot 2.1 – SM Sayyidina Umar Al-Khattab

3rd place of Open category (Year 10 to Year 12) – Unknown Paradox – SM Pg Isteri Hjh Mariam

The winner of Open category (Year 7 to Year 9) – The Oracle – Sekolah Menegah Berakas

2nd place of Open category (Year 10 to Year 12) – SAMSUA Technobot 2.0 – SM Sayyidina Umar Al-Khattab

3rd place of Open category (Year 10 to Year 12) – Robokids – Sekolah Menengah Sayyidina Husin

The winner of Open category (Year 4 to Year 6) – YOLO – St. Andrew’s School

2nd place of Open category (Year 4 to Year 6) – Banaatal-Jazari – Sekolah Persedian Arab

3rd place of Open category (Year 4 to Year 6) – Nafaha Explorer – Sekolah Rendah Junjongan

Winner of the Pearl Diving Category (Primary School) – Srat Diver – Sekolah Rendah Ahmad Tajuddin

Creative award for Pearl Diving – Deceptikons the 7th – Sekolah Rendah Muhammad Alam, Seria

Winner of the Treasure Hunt Category – SMSB’s Huntress – Sekolah Menengah Sufri Bolkiah

Guest of honour inspecting the team from Yayasan School

A demo from Sekolah Menengah Berakas

A demo from SOAS student

Team W.I.S.E from St. Andrew’s School

Julian Fung, BEDB’s Assistant CEO and Head of Infrastructure Development with students from Sekolah Rendah Sengkurong

From Sekolah Rendah Muhammad Alam, Seria

From Sekolah Rendah Sungai Tali

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Representing the team from Brunei from Sungai Tali Primary School and Sayyidina Umar Al-Khattab Secondary School with their coaches and Satinah binti Hj Abang, Student Officer of Science Technology and Environment Partnership (STEP) Centre.

After entering the competition for the sixth time, Brunei finally made it to the Top 10 of the Open Category for Secondary Level. That team is a group of students from Sayyidina Umar Al-Khattab Secondary School with their team project “Robotlifter”.

Though Brunei went back empty handed, the spirit of the students were not dampened. They really had a great time and all of them didn’t expect to fly all the way to Russia to represent Brunei in the World Robot Olympiad in Sochi, Russia. They braved the cold (of Russia), the jet lag from flying and they did the best they could do with the resources given.

Brunei definitely has potential to break into the Top 3 with more competition and exposure such as participation in WRO. The next event will be hosted in Qatar in 2015 and funnily enough, they didn’t announce the following host for the year 2016.

Brunei’s participation in Qatar 2015 looks promising and I do hope this can spur more schools and students to join the Brunei Robotics Olympiad next year and you can stand a chance to represent your school in Qatar WRO 2015. The idea here is not just to represent Brunei but learn and gain more exposure and with this repeating behaviour, everything will come naturally for Bruneians and a bigger chance to break the Top 3 benchmark.

When I saw the students from Brunei did their presentation and Q&A sessions, I believe we can actually go pretty far with more resources and proper training. I salute the kids for their courage and able to speak to the public while showcasing their project.

It was also my first time experiencing how WRO was bring run and this event was no easy feat. The organisers had mixed feedback with regards to the handling issues and our LO for the Brunei team kept on changing and their English wasn’t that bad.

Hence, it made me realised how much effort the Brunei Embassy to the Russian Federation they offered to the Brunei delegate so everything would be smooth sailing. On behalf of the Brunei delegates, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Brunei Embassy especially His Excellency Haji Haini bin Haji Hashim, the Ambassador of Brunei Darussalam to Russian Federation, for continuously giving us support in terms of logistics and hospitality. It was also nice of him to drop the Olympic Park every day to give moral support to the kids at their booths.

A big thank you also to the Hanafi, Pg Madihi and Natalia for helping us during our stay in Moscow and especially Sochi in the past few days. It really made our trip less of a burden and I truly appreciate the kindness and dedication from the Brunei Embassy there. Thumbs up!!

As for the students, don’t be disappointed by the result and I’m very proud that all of you made it to Russia and gave your best against 49 countries. I’m pretty sure the Ministry of Education will be pleased with Brunei’s effort for making it to the Top 10 in WRO’s history. I also hope that sponsors will come along as well to help potential students for next year’s WRO in Qatar 2015.

His Excellency Haji Haini bin Haji Hashim, the Ambassador of Brunei Darussalam to Russian Federation watching the Regular competition at the World Robot Olympiad 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Thank you so much for your support and the hospitality to the Brunei delegates.

The students also managed to get their jacket signed by the Russian volunteers. All of them wore orange sweaters uniform.

Selfies with the Russians

Political move by China as they wanted Taiwan to lower down their flag and the Chinese team withdraw from the competition.

The robot made of orange.

The Gen II Robot finals between Thailand and …. Thailandd

His Excellency attending the closing ceremony which was slightly disorganised in my opinion especially coming from Russia

The Russian in green is bilingual

The Brunei Team waiting for the closing ceremony and the results

I shall see you next time, Rosmanov (Well, that’s not her name but I just feel like calling her that)

The Russian tradition with the weight bars

Host nation Russia didn’t manage to win any category but made the podium on some categories

Team Malaysia, Team Thailand and Team Taiwan dominated the World Robot Olympiad 2014 with a few gold and silver medals

 

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