It’s all systems go for two budding student engineers from the capital as they tweak their creation ahead of this year’s robotic games.
Daniel Bekai and KuChul Jung, known as The Engineers, took home Gold recently at the World Robotics Olympiad (WRO) – UAE 2014 nationals, giving them the chance to represent the Emirates at the world finals in Sochi, Russia.
“It is an honour for me to represent the UAE in Sochi,” said Bekai. “I have lived in the UAE for my entire life, and it is like a home country to me. It would be a pleasure representing the UAE and my school at an international level.”
While Bekai and Jung, both grade 10 students from the American Community School of Abu Dhabi (ACS), were initially nervous when they laid eyes on their competition, their worries were soon eased as they realised their simple robot, Jeff, had what it took to win.
“At first we didn’t expect any big results but we tried our best to reach our goal and we were successful. Our robot, to look at in comparison, people would wonder what it does,” added Jung. “The other school’s robots were complex but we made fewer mistakes because they had giant robots that if one thing went wrong, everything else went wrong. We focused on one task and managed to do it.”
Over 1,300 students took part, making up 450 teams from across the UAE including Al Ain, Sharjah, Dubai, Khorfakkan and Abu Dhabi.
“Winning means a lot to me; it is certainly good for my reputation as a creative and innovative person. Winning the robotics competition also opens up lots of doors for me now and in the future,” added Bekai.
The WRO final will be held in Sochi, Russia from 15th to 17th November.
