Carnegie Mellon sends winning regional Botball team to Global Conference on Educational Robotics

After facing defeat in the double elimination round, the team had the opportunity to form an alliance with Grandville Middle School from Michigan and competed in the 'Alliance League' where they placed second. The team also came home with a judges' choice award.

Each year middle school and high school students, educators, robotics enthusiasts, and professionals from around the world gather to connect with peers, discuss technology-related ideas at GCER, and to cheer on their favorite teams during the exciting autonomous robot tournament.

The Al Mawakeb School was one of three international schools competing in this year's tournament in a field of 61 registered competitors. This is the second year that Carnegie Mellon Qatar has sent the winning regional team to the international event in the United States.

In preparation for the International Botball Tournament, the Al Mawakeb team, said:

"Time, patience, and teamwork are important skills in robotics. Building a robot requires constant revisions and careful analysis of functionality and movement. At the regional competition at Carnegie Mellon Qatar in April, we faced some fantastic competitors who forced us to bring out our 'A-game' and we rose to the challenge. Since our win, we have been working diligently to address minor problems and have redesigned the robot a couple of times to enhance performance. We also developed multiple strategies to use in different matches. We have built a product that we are proud of."

The 2009 Global Conference on Educational Robotics was held at the National Conference Center in Leesburg, Virginia (about 35 miles from Washington, D.C.) from July 1 to July 5. The conference featured talks by internationally recognized robotics experts from academia, government and industry including NASA Ames Research Center, Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence, Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University and Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. Muhieddine Soubra, Director of the Al Mawakeb school said, "The team was excited to attend GCER and were glad to have the opportunity to meet students and teams from around the world and to learn from their expertise. They attended different robotics workshops and were introduced to the latest technology. The team also attended sessions with representatives from world-leading institutions and universities and discussed innovations and discoveries in the robotics field. It was a great educational experience."

The Al Mawakeb School was crowned the champion in the Middle East regional tournament held at Carnegie Mellon Qatar in April. Just edging out UAE rival team the International School of Arts and Sciences in the double elimination challenge, the Al Mawakeb team won an exciting and close championship in which more than 200 students from 26 schools around the Middle East region competed.

The regional tournament kicked off late-February with workshops held in Qatar and Egypt. The participants received information about the competition and were given robot kits to build their own Lego© Mindstorm robot. During the tournament, teams faced-off against each other with their robots and scored points for completing specified tasks around this year's theme of 'Alternative Energy' during a two-minute round. The winning team designed the robot which scored the most points.

The Al Jazeera Children's Channel is airing a fourteen-episode series on Botball in the summer, with the first episode scheduled to air in July. The episodes will broadcast every Friday and Saturday at 14:45 Doha time, with re-runs on Sunday and Monday at 15:15 Doha time.