WASHINGTON: Kuwait University’s team won the best robot award on Wednesday as part of the VEX Robotics World Championship held in Texas, becoming the first Arab and Mideast university team to get this international award. Speaking to KUNA, Nada Al-Daihani, head of the Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity, said, “We have a promising Kuwaiti generation.”

He expressed his delight as the team of the Faculty of Science’s Computer Department managed to snatch this award, one of 15 awards given by the competition in which 120 teams are participating from across the world.

Meanwhile, Dr. Noura Al-Jarri, supervisor of the team, said building a scientific approach to training for international competitions has proven successful, saying that she looks forward to preparing several students to take part in the coming year’s contests. The Kuwaiti team’s design was professional and paid great attention to details to withstand the intense competition, she added.

The competition is organized by the World Robot Olympiad Association in cooperation with Kuwait University, the Ministry of Education, the Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity, and Zain. The contest is being organized in Texas from April 25 until May 4 and aims to encourage youth to pay attention to science and technology through training workshops and competitions between school and university teams to design robots able to carry out complicated challenges. — KUNA