Maccabi Tel Aviv captain Sheran Yeini attended the finals of the international robotics competition for children and young people held this week at the Nokia Hall in Tel Aviv
The finals of the FIRST International Robotics Competition were held this week at the Nokia Hall in Tel Aviv and it brought together hundreds of young people from Israel and abroad for a competition of cleverly designed robots in a kind of football match full of challenges and above all, fun. Among those attending the competition was also MTA captain Sheran Yeini, who was keen to have a look at all the uniquely designed robots practising a very different kind of football.
The competition, which began in 1992 and is designed for children aged 9-18, was the initiative of the Israeli FIRST organisation (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) with a view to encouraging children to take up studies in technology and engineering, and it was they who set the challenges and rules for the children to design and build their robots specifically to meet the those challenges. Groups of youngsters from countries as diverse as Turkey, Bosnia and California all participated in the finals of the competition.
In all, 51 Israeli groups and four groups from the abovementioned countries all faced two main challenges. The first was to build a robot not weighing more than 60 kilogrammes to play against five other robots in a match whose challenges included not only scoring goals but also climbing ramps, crawling through tunnels and, for the last moments of the match, having the robot play at a height of half a metre above the playing field whilst being held by yet another robot above it. The second challenge was to provide solutions for transporting people, goods and services in the safest and most efficient way possible.
In their commitment to the overall development of our youth, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Football club warmly applauds this all important initiative and looks forward to seeing these children as the future leaders in the development of technology beneficial to everyone.
