Robotics of the future, Schools Lego-Robot competition

Schools across the whole Winning team, Ysgol Friars, Bangor.of Wales took part in a simultaneous “Robotics of the future” Lego challenge at Venue Cymru recently. Bangor University’s Technocamps team ran the north Wales heat of this exciting new competition. 

Ten competition kits worth £500 each were donated to 10 local schools by Bangor University’s Technocamps project. These were used in the schools’ technology clubs and in the robotics competition. Teams of six pupils aged between 11 and 19 from the 10 schools attended the competition.

The event was opened and compered throughout the day by TV presenter, Gareth Jones.

The pupils had to pre-build a future robot that will help our environment in any way possible. The pupils also received a hidden challenge on the day.

This was a simultaneous national competition where the Technocamps hubs at Aberystwyth, Glamorgan and Swansea Universities also ran their competitions with live video links and a number of web based ‘hangouts’ on-going throughout the day.

On the day, the schools were judged on their designs and developments as well as given a challenge where they had to modify their robot to dance to a musical beat. The regional winners of the competition were announced live as Ysgol Friars from Bangor, and the National winners were announced on Monday as Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw from Pontypool.

Kim Jones, organiser of the Bangor event said: “This was such an exciting event to organise, it was great to have so many schools participating and it was an honour to be involved in a pan-Wales event. The schools did brilliantly in the challenges and the designs were fantastic with some fascinating fresh ideas.”

Publication date: 29 July 2013