The competition took place amid great enthusiasm and excellent weather among the 50 participating high school students and their respective accompanying teachers. It consisted of two challenges in which the ten teams put their creativity and ingenuity to the test in building and programming robots.
The winners of this first edition of the contest were:
1st place: Liceo No. 1, La Paz, Canelones
2nd place: Liceo No. 5, Rivera
3rd place: Liceo No. 15 Ibiray, Montevideo
Present at the awards ceremony were the General Manager of Microsoft Uruguay, Eduardo Mangarelli, the Dean of the School of Engineering, Mario Fernández, the Academic Coordinator of the Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering Program, Guillermo Langwagen, and the Professor of Analog Electronics and Automatic Control, André Fonseca.
Participating high schools included No. 15 “Ibiray” High School, José Pedro Varela National High School (IUDEP), Inmaculada Concepción High School, Sagrado Corazón High School, La Mennais Institute, No. 1 High School in La Paz, and No. 1 High School in Las Piedras - “Manuel Rosé,” IPREU Sagrada Familia (San José), Faustino Harrison High School (Florida), and High School No. 5 (Rivera), selected by random drawing before a notary public from among the 41 applicants. Each high school was represented by a team consisting of at least one teacher and five students in grades 4 through 6.
The event began on April 14 and included three phases: training in the use of the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot kit, practice, and competition. The kit contains 577 assembly pieces and programmable devices for creating intelligent robots.
Regardless of the outcome, each high school was given the kit used by its representative team for educational purposes. Each participant received a certificate, and there were trophies and special prizes for the top three finishers.