Team wins trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA to tour the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University
DOHA , QATAR - Now that they've won the 2007 Regional BOTBALL Championship, students from Al-Ruya Bilingual School of Kuwait will head to the United States this summer to see real robots in action as they tour the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
"All of our BOTBALL contestants have been learning about the teamwork and technology it takes to build their robots. The grand prize winners will get to visit the biggest academic robotics group in the world, the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, where they will see the same things: the combination of imagination, technical skills, team work and dedication all going to build innovative robots," says Chuck Thorpe, dean of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar and former head of the Robotics Institute.
"The trip will be fun and educational, and we hope will be an inspiration to the BOTBALL students to continue their good work in robotics." Thorpe plans to lead the tour himself.
Doha College of Qatar secured second place, winning all members of the team an iPod Shuffle. Additionally, Al-Maha English School for Girls of Qatar and Al-Mawakeb School Garhoud of the UAE took home judges' choice awards.
Participating schools were: from Qatar: Doha College and Al-Maha English School for Girls; from Kuwait: The British School of Kuwait and Al RU'YA Bilingual School; and from the U.A.E.: Al Mawakeb School (Garhoud). *
BOTBALL is a U.S.-based organization that introduces robotics to high schools. Student teams are equipped with a Lego Mindstorm robot, along with instruction on how to program it to move autonomously through a course. The programming sessions conclude with a challenge student teams are pitted against one another to see whose robot completes the course. The winning team also must demonstrate the work they've done in order to program their robot.
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar brought BOTBALL to Doha in 2005, and four teams took part. Last year the competition increased to six teams in Doha and this year it expanded three fold to include 12 teams in Doha, three teams in Kuwait and three teams in the U.A.E. Next year, Carnegie Mellon Qatar plans to get high school students from the entire Gulf Region involved in robotics competitions. For more information on BOTBALL in Qatar, visit www.qatar.cmu.edu/botball.
* Note: the American Community School of Abu Dhabi captured second place in the U.A.E. tournament but was unable to attend the regional competition.
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About Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar is the first international branch campus operated by Carnegie Mellon University, a private American research university that's regularly ranked among the best in the world. In August 2004 Carnegie Mellon Qatar began offering its highly regarded undergraduate programs in business administration and computer science at the invitation of the Qatar Foundation. Carnegie Mellon plans to open a new facility on the Education City campus in January 2008. More information can be found at http://www.qatar.cmu.edu.
Contact:
Noha Al Afifi
+974 492 8457
nohaa@qatar.cmu.edu
Press Release 2007
