After a COVID-19 hiatus, the “First Global” robotics challenge for high school students is taking place in person again, with teams from almost every country in the world — though not Russia.
Robots from different teams compete during the 6th edition of the First Global Robotics Challenge in Geneva, Switzerland, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. For their first trip to a celebrated robotics contest for high school students from scores of countries, a team of Ukrainian teens had a problem.uncertain, and Ukrainian customs officers careful about incoming merchandise, the group only received a base kit of gadgetry on the day they were set to leave for the event in Geneva.
Gladkyi said an international package delivery company wasn't delivering into Ukraine, and reliance on a smaller private company to ship the kit from Poland into Ukraine got tangled up with customs officials. That logjam got cleared last Sunday, forcing the team to dash to get their robot ready with adaptations they had planned — only days before the contest began.
Teams use game controllers like those attached to consoles in millions of households worldwide to direct their self-designed robots to zip around pits, or “fields,” to scoop up hollow plastic balls with holes in them that symbolically represent carbon. Each round starts by emptying a clear rectangular box filled with the balls into the field, prompting a whirring, hissing scramble to pick them up.
By meshing competition with common interest, the “First Global” initiative aims to offer a tonic to a troubled world, where kids look past politics to help solve problems that face everybody.