Panama in sight — programmed for success; the future engineers are gearing up

As previously reported, a dedicated robotics classroom has been set up at Kossuth in Orosháza, where 21st-century teaching is carried out with students. Talent development plays a prominent role, and the high-schoolers test themselves in many competitions.

Among this year's entrants to the World Robot Olympiad are students from the Gyulai SzC Kossuth Lajos Technikum, Vocational School in Orosháza. At the regional final in Szeged, held at the University of Szeged's Attila József Study and Information Center, they achieved excellent results.

This year Panama is the host country of the competition; on the course designed by them (ships, canal, obstacles), the students' self-built and programmed robots must deliver top performance. The Orosháza teams entered the Future Engineers category among the four categories.

"At the competition, coaches are not allowed to communicate with the students; they are given only 10 minutes of assistance. On site and on the given course, the students must solve every problem that arises. Our two 9th-grade teams excelled at the regional: our students have been programming for only half a year. They advanced to the national final in Győr. From Szeged we brought home a 2nd place (Balázs Bozó, László Csáki, Ádám Kelemen, Zétény Szabó) and a 4th place (Dominik Horváth, Dani Maczik, Zsombor Surinya)," reported Melinda Mészáros, the students' coach. She added that the ultimate goal is Panama.

"We're lucky to have such talented teams. This is a technical sport: if something breaks during the contest, competitors must find the best solution on the spot. That's how our excellently performing team narrowly missed the podium with 4th place," she added.

After the Szeged regional, they continue in Győr.

Source: Beol