New Al Wurood hosts 3rd Robofest

JEDDAH — The 3rd edition of Al Wurood Robofest and Exhibition was a high-techno-maniacal art exhibit for all ages produced by New Al Wurood International School, in its campus on Saturday, Feb. 4. The main purpose of this event was to increase the awareness of STEM education, so that more kids can get involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Robofest 2017 was a contest for grade 6-8. Al Wurood Robofest was highly enthralling as its students had to fully program their robots to perform their missions without human assistance. No joysticks or remote controls were allowed. They had to program their robots to accomplish assigned tasks within 15 minutes. The exhibition was a chance for students to present their engineering capstone projects. The projects here were designed around practical applications for robots, such as a project by one student who built a robot designed to automatically seek out and find lost television remote controls. Another student built a solar-powered, remote-controlled balloon designed for intelligence gathering and surveillance. Conveyor robot, heavyload mover robot, robot ATM, robot for vending chocolates, taxpayer robot, quadruped robots, were other projects in the exhibition. The competition and exhibition were inaugurated by V.T. Balram. Balram is a Member of Legislative Assembly in Kerala, India. He observed, “While they are doing this, they will learn the real application of robots in the future. In the future, the robot is going to be everywhere.” He admired the efforts and initiatives taken by Al Wurood for taking every strong step while striding towards its goal, ‘a world class learning community promoting human excellence’. Sunil Kumar, head master, welcomed the people gathered and said, “It can be stressful, but it’s also fun. It’s stressful getting it programmed right and getting the robot to do what you need it do to. Once it does, it’s rewarding.”