It is essential to democratize robotics and promote STEAM education in children

Jorge Hernández Huerta, national organizer of the 13th edition of the World Robot Olympiad (WRO), which will be held in Mexico in 2024, said that it is very important to democratize robotics and promote the inclusion of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering) education. , Arts & Mathematics) among childhoods.

At a press conference to announce the WRO, he highlighted the importance of promoting the participation of girls and young people in this type of disciplines, to reverse the gender gap that exists.

The interest of this event in its 13th edition is to encourage the participation of girls and adolescents because their presence in other versions of the Olympiad has reached only 30 percent. We want to promote talent from childhood with the spaces and tools adequate, to empower them from an early age and provide them with the possibilities of training as qualified human capital for the future.

He mentioned that for a young person to want to be an astronaut, athlete, painter, as a child at some point they had to observe and experience these activities closely, otherwise, When they get to university, they believe that they can only enter engineering or something related to science if they have good skills in mathematics, physics or chemistry, but without any previous experience that would allow them to visualize what those careers consist of..

He said that in the past 12 years, important efforts have been made in Mexico in the educational field to bring children as young as five years old closer to robotics and STEAM education.

This is where the World Robot Olympiad (WRO), which emerged in 2004 in Asia, aligns with the objectives of Mexico to bring boys and girls closer to robotics, be part of this community and in the end, decide if they want to be in this environment or want to be related in some other way to innovation, technology and knowledge.

The organizer in Mexico said that this competition is almost 20 years old, has more than 95 affiliated countries in the world and a community of more than 75 thousand students. But it was after the halt marked by the pandemic in 2020 that, starting in 2022, its presence in Latin America was strengthened.

Thematic competition

Hernández Huerta said that the WRO is a thematic competition where teams of children and young people, between 8 and 19 years old, will measure their knowledge, applying solutions to real-world problems using the STEAM methodology along with educational robotics. Each year this competition has a different theme, and this year it is Allies of the Earth.

This tournament consists of four different categories: Robotic Missions is the category that is based on challenges where the students will create an autonomous robot that can solve specific challenges on a track; Robotic sports has the challenge that each team participates with two autonomous machines in a match of a given sport.

The third and fourth categories are called Future Engineers, aimed at participants with knowledge of advanced robotics following current research trends to solve real-world problems; and Innovative Futures which is based on projects where participants develop their own intelligent robotic solution related to the current theme of the season.

In each category, separated by age groups, made up of 2 or 3 participants and guided by a coach, the teams will design, build and program a robot model that is capable of completing a challenge based on the current theme of the competition.

In the page (https://wromexico.org/) you will be able to know in detail the rules of the competition, the call is open in the email [email protected] or by calling +52 1 56 1049 6070.

Currently there are 32 teams registered in 12 states of the Republic. Space is limited and those interested must register their teams as indicated in the following tutorial:

It is important to note that this year there will be no recovery participation fee thanks to the support of Fundesteam, a non-profit group created in Panama 14 years ago, with a presence in 14 countries and promoter of the WRO.

Under the motto Allies of the Earth, the tournament will have qualifying competitions between May and July in different cities of the country, in September the national final will be held and in November the international final will be held in Turkey.