By Fazeena Saleem
From left: Fawazi Al Ajji, Head of Qatarisation at Maersk Oil Qatar, Sheikh Faisal bin Fahad Al Thani, Deputy Managing Director, Dr Ken Macleod, President, College of North Atlantic- Qatar (CNA-Q) and Dr Theodore Chiasson, Dean of School of Information Technology and National Representative for NRO in Qatar, at the official signing of the partnership agreement at the CNA-Q yesterday. Kammutty V P
DOHA: Qatar National Robot Olympiad 2012 competitions for all schools in the country were launched yesterday. The event for science, technology and education will bring together over 380 young people from different schools in the country.
The competitions organised by College of the North Atlantic – Qatar (CNA-Q), will be hosted at Aspire Zone on October 6 in partnership with Maersk Oil Qatar for over 120 teams of students from Independent and private schools in the country. Theme for 2012 competition is ‘Robots Connecting People.’
“The purpose of these competitions is to encourage students in Qatar to choose science path at an early age. Around 85 percent students here choose Arts stream at school and later they find difficult to pursue higher education in science and technology,” Dr Theodore Chiasson, Dean, School of Information Technology at CNA-Q, is the National Representative for the World Robot Olympiad in Qatar told The Peninsula on the sidelines of a press conference held at the CNA-Q.
Qatar National Robot Olympiad first hosted in 2007 and CNA-Q took over the event in 2011 has seen a quick increase in participation of students and coaches, he further explained.
National Robot Olympiad is the national event hosted by countries seeking to participate in the World Robot Olympiad. Being established in 2004 in Singapore it has grown to 36 member countries and over 15,000 participating teams worldwide. The 2012 World Robot Olympiad will be held in Kuala Lumpur between November 9 and November 11.
Qatar National Robot Olympiad 2012 competitions will be held under two categories. The regular category competitions will be for teams building robots that are designed to solve a given challenge set on the table and the open category competitors will be given a theme based in which teams build robots that address the theme of the competition. These categories will be divided into three age groups as elementary school, junior high school and high school.
Finalists of Qatar National Robot Olympiad will compete on the World Robot Olympiad Arabia. This event is the regional version of World Olympiad. The inaugural event was held in Abu Dhabi in May 2011, with more than 1,500 students and 300 teams taking part from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Egypt.
This year’s World Robot Olympiad Arabia will be hosted by the CAN-Q at Azpire Zone in partnership with Maersk Oil Qatar. Winning team will be sent to compete in the international event.
Maersk Oil Qatar and CNA-Q yesterday signed a partnership agreement to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics to students in Qatar. In cooperation with LEGO Education, the partnership will allow CNA-Q to expand Qatar’s National Robot Olympiad competition for schools in Qatar.
“Maersk Oil Qatar is fully committed to supporting the Qatar National Vision 2030, which encompasses the key pillars of human, social, economic and environmental development,” said Sheikh Faisal bin Fahad Al Thani, Deputy Managing Director of Maersk Oil Qatar.
“By partnering with this educational initiative, we are enabling more children in Qatar to gain an early interest in technologies that drive Qatar’s continued growth and development. We pleased to support and contribute to this important educational event,” he further said.
The Peninsula
