Botball high school robotics competition kicks off with two-day workshop

Botball is a U.S.-based organization that introduces robotics to high school students. At the intensive two-day workshop, the teams were given the necessary background and expertise to design and program their own Lego Mindstorm robot.

"This is my first year to participate in the Botball Robotics workshop. I learned how to program robots using C programming, and I also learned how to fix robots," says Hassan Basil, a student at Hamza Bin Abdul Moutalib School. "This is a very exciting experience, I hope we win first place in the competition in April."

Over the next eight weeks, the students will work with their teachers and mentors to build and program their own robots. These robots will then compete against each other in a non-destructive competition on April 25 at Carnegie Mellon Qatar. At this competition the robots must operate autonomously, meaning they move on their own without any remote control from the students. At the competition, teams also must demonstrate the work they've done in order to program their robot.

Chuck Thorpe, Dean of Carnegie Mellon Qatar and former Head of the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, said:

"A lot of students think robots and artificial intelligence are something that is very difficult and that they could never be part of."

Thorpe said, "Botball not only shows students that robotics is something they can do - and do well - it also shows them how to work as a team, how to plan a project, how to use their math skills and how to have fun while you learn."

The three teams from Egypt that are participating in Botball will attend a two-day workshop in Cairo on March 6 and 7. This is the fifth year for Botball, and the first year teams from Saudi Arabia have joined the competition. The addition of Saudi Arabia brings the number of participating schools to 26 from five different countries. Grand prize for the winning team of the April 25 competition will be to travel to the United States in July to attend the Global Conference on Educational Robotics.

Al Jazeera Children's Channel will be featuring more than ten Botball episodes this year. This is the third year Al Jazeera has partnered with Carnegie Mellon to cover the robotics event. Botball reports on Al Jazeera Children's Channel will air internationally in April and May. Dates are not confirmed.

Participating schools from Qatar are: Al Eman Independant Secondary School for Girls, Al Jazeera Academy, American School of Doha, Amna Bint Wahab Independant Secondary School for Girls, Doha College, Doha Independent Secondary School for Boys, Omar Bin Al- Khattab Scientific School, Qatar Academy, Al-Wakra Independent Secondary School for Boys, Gulf English School, Al-Bayan Independent Secondary School for Girls, Qatar Technical Independent School, Al-Shahaniya Independent School, Hamad Bin Abdullah Bin Jassim Independent School for Boys, Lebenese School in Doha and Hamza bin Abdul Moutalib Independent School for Boys.

Schools from Kuwait are: Al RU'YA Bilingual School and Kuwait National English School. Schools from the U.A.E. are: Al Mawakeb School - Al Garhoud, Al Mawakeb School - Al Barsha and International School of Arts and Sciences. Schools from Egypt are: Canadian International School - Egypt, Oasis International School and International School of Choueifat Cairo. Schools from Saudi Arabia are Riyadh School and Dar-Al Fikr School in Jeddah.