The Ministry of National Education had suspended social activities in the last two years as a part of the Covid-19 preventive measures. With the beginning of the new term in the Covid-19 preventive measures on March 2, it was announced that social activities will be permitted under the condition of taking suitable measures in line with principles and rules defined in order to control the spread of the virus. The Ministry of National Education has decided to organize the International Robot Competition as its first social activity at the national level.

 

14th of the competition which was organized in different cities every year as a part of cooperation with the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK), Technology Foundation of Türkiye and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency was planned to be organized in Şanlıurfa in 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic.

 

This year, the competition will take place in Şanlıurfa as it was planned two years ago with the theme "Göbeklitepe" listed in the UNESCO World Heritage and named as the "zero point in time" between June 13 and 16 under 12 categories with the "Ahican (Robot designed by the Ministry as the mascot of the competition) at the zero point in time" slogan.

  

This year, there will be a preliminary in the competition organized within the framework of the "Vocational and Technical Education Cooperation Protocol" signed between the Directorate General for Vocational and Technical Education of the Ministry  and the ACROME Robotics Mechatronic Systems Industry and Trade Co. with the purpose encouraging students to develop their coding skills. Preliminary named "Virtual Robot Competition" will be carried out through "riders.ai" platform in order to select students in 6 categories such as "line follower (basic level)", "line follower (advantaged level)", "mini drone", "mini sumo" and "labyrinth master."

 

Applications can be made through "robot.meb.gov.tr" between March 7 and May 22.

 

Since the beginning of competition in 2007, 25,504 students and advisor teachers participated in the competition and 18,141 robots were designed.

 

The robot competition aims at increasing the quality of vocational and technical education, raising awareness about robots among the public, introducing industrial and technical developments and sharing experiences.

 

"The Robot Competition will be our first national activity after two years. Students will have the opportunity to display robots they developed in the last 3 months. We expect that students from all parts of the country will apply to the competition," said Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer.