Robotex International 2023: Young competitors from Cyprus win global robotics awards (pics)

The Cypriot mission of young roboticists has been victorious once again, returning with global awards from the Robotex International Competition held in Tallinn, Estonia on Friday 17, and Saturday 18 November 2023.

According to a Cyprus Computer Society (CCS) announcement, the large Cypriot delegation of 200 people consisted of the winners of the corresponding Pancyprian competition, who travelled with their families to Tallinn to represent Cyprus in one of the most popular robotics competitions.

The Robotex International 2023 had 14 competitions and 887 teams from 26 countries participated. Cyprus was one of the four countries with the largest number of competitors (100+), CCS noted.

Annual Awards

Students of Yiannis Laouris, from the homonymous institute in Paphos, as every year, collected medals at the international competition. More specifically, the Laouris 7 team of students George Eleftheriou, George Laouris, Ioannis Giannakou, Ioannis Neophytou, and Nikolas Pitta won first and second place in Lego Line Following (up to 13 years old) and first place in Lego Line Following (14+ years old).

Also, the Laouris 5 team with students Christodoulos Gennaris, Giorgos Chrysostomou, Loukas Loukas, and Alexandros Karapiperis won second place in two challenges, Lego Sumo (14+ years old) and Folkrace (up to 16 years old).

The robotic girls

"As it turns out, this year has been the year of our girls," CCS's announcement continued.

The girls’ team Laouris 777, namely Angeliki Laouri, Kyriaki Andreou, Maria Epaminonda, and Sotiria Ioannidou won second place in a challenge innovative for Cypriot standards, the Water Rally.

In addition, the students Eleanna and Flora Karras, Nausika Vroudou, and Cilia Ktori of the Angels team from the Archangelos Public Gymnasium Nicosia, with Maria Yioutani as a coach and Miltos Karras and Antonis Ktori as mentors, raised the Cyprus flag twice in Girls Firefighting (14+ ). This was a girl-only challenge aimed at increasing the number of women working in tech fields in the future.

In the same challenge, the students Athanasia Mavrotheri, Adriana Safuat, and Christina Christidou, from the Firestorm team, coached by Dr. Pericles Cheng, from STEM Education in Nicosia, won sixth place.

Excellent presence

The performance of the students of Archangelos School Nicosia in Enhanced Line Following was also excellent, where they won sixth and seventh place, the CCS announcement noted. The team is comprised of the students Vassilis Zannettou, Konstantinos Theodorou, and Antonios Mettis. Finally, the Apoplous Folks team with George Nikos, Paraskevi Sofokleous, and Kyriaki Theodosiou, from the Apoplous Ergastiri Politismou in Famagusta, had a very good presence at the international event.

In addition to the competition, the Robotex International festival also includes the Roboleague presentation of robotic constructions by primary school students, where the following teams participated:

• Three teams (EnginoMAS Lab, Ultimate Radar Lab & Rainbow City Lab) coached by Stavria Ageli from the Robotics Lab Institute in Larnaca,
• the Magic Hands/Flash Robots team from Eurolab Kokkinotrimithias, trained by Kyriakos Iakovou and accompanied by Andreas Andreou.
• the Lara team from the G.E. ENGLISH CENTRE, trained by Sotiria Vorkas and accompanied by Efi Gabriel
• The Steamers team from the Youth Board’s institute of the same name in Limassol, coached by Mr. Neophytos Neofitidis
• And the Robominds team from Archangelou Primary School in Nicosia with coach Efi Dareiou.

Volunteers’ Contribution

Five volunteers and members of the Organizing and Scientific Committee of Robotex Cyprus represented the Cyprus Computer Society (CCS) in two events of national Robotex bodies. The head of the Cyprus mission was Miltos Karras, Chairman of the Technical Committee of Robotex Cyprus and teacher at the Archangelos High School in Nicosia.

CCS student competitions

It is noted that the next Robotex Cyprus will take place on the last weekend of June 2024. Until then, CCS will be organising a number of annual student activities on the topic of digital skills. The first round of the Bebras informatics competition and the first round of the Informatics Olympiad will be held in December, while the deadline for registrations for the First Lego League robotics competition ends. For information on all CCS activities, visit www.ccs.org.cy or contact 22460680.