Robotex International 2023: Cyprus girls and boys winning global robotics awards

​Cyprus Mission

Once again, our Cypriot roboticists returned with global awards from the Robotex International Competition held in Tallinn, Estonia on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th, November, 2023.

The large Cypriot delegation of 200 people consisted of the winners of the corresponding Pancyprian competition, who travelled with their families to Tallinn to represent our country in one of the most popular robotics competitions.

The Robotex International 2023 had 14 competitions and 887 teams from 26 countries participated. Cyprus was one of the 4 countries with the largest number of competitors (100+).

Annual Awards

Τhe students of Mr. Yiannis Laouris, from the homonymous institute in Paphos, as every year have collected  medals in this international competition. Specifically, the Laouris 7 team with students George Eleftheriou, George Laouris, Ioannis Giannakou, Ioannis Neophytou and Nikolas Mita won 1st and 2nd place in Lego Line Following (up to 13 years old) and 1st place in Lego Line Following (14+ years old).

Also, the Laouris 5 team with students Christodoulos Gennaris, Giorgos Chrysostomou, Loukas Loukas and Alexandros Karapiperis won 2nd place in 2 challenges Lego Sumo (14+ years old) and Folkrace (up to 16 years old).

The robotic girls!

As it turns out, this year has been the year of our girls!

The girls’ team Laouris 777, namely Angeliki Laouri, Kyriaki Andreou, Maria Epaminonda and Sotiria Ioannidou won 2nd place in a challenge innovative for Cypriot standards, the Water Rally.

In addition, the students Eleanna and Flora Karras, Nausika Vroudou and Cilia Ktori of the Angels team from the Archangelos Public Gymnasium Nicosia, with Maria Yioutani as a coach and Miltos Karras and Antonis Ktori as mentors, raised the Cyprus flag twice (1st and 2nd place) in Girls Firefighting (14+ ). A girl-only challenge aimed at increasing the number of women working in tech fields in the future!

In the same challenge, the students Athanasia Mavrotheri, Adriana Safuat and Christina Christidou, from the Firestorm team, coached by Dr. Pericles Cheng, from STEM Education in Nicosia, won the 6^th place.

Excellent presence

The performance of the students of Archangelos School Nicosia in Enhanced Line Following was also excellent, where they won 6th and 7th place. The team is contained by the students Vassilis Zannettou, Konstantinos Theodorou and Antonios Mettis. Finally, the Apoplous Folks team with George Nikos, Paraskevi Sofokleous and Kyriaki Theodosiou, from the Apoplous Ergastiri Politismou in Famagusta, had a very good presence at the international event.

In addition to the competition, the Robotex International festival also includes the Roboleague presentation of robotic constructions by primary school students, where the following teams participated:

•       3 teams (EnginoMAS Lab, Ultimate Radar Lab & Rainbow City Lab) coached by Stavria Ageli from the Robotics Lab institute in Larnaca,

•       the Magic Hands/Flash Robots team from Eurolab Kokkinotrimithias, trained by Kyriakos Iakovou and accompanied by Andreas Andreou.

•       the Lara team from the G.E. ENGLISH CENTRE, trained by Sotiria Vorkas and accompanied by Efi Gabriel

•       The Steamers team from the Youth Board’s institute of the same name in Limassol, coached by Mr. Neophytos Neofitidis

•       and the Robominds team from Archangelou Primary School in Nicosia with coach Efi Dareiou.

Volunteers’ Contribution

5 volunteers and members of the Organizing and Scientific Committee of Robotex Cyprus represented the Cyprus Computer Society (CCS) in 2 events of national Robotex bodies. The head of the Cyprus mission was Miltos Karras, Chairman of the Technical Committee of Robotex Cyprus and teacher at the Archangelos High School in Nicosia.

CCS student competitions

It is noted that the next Robotex Cyprus will take place on the last weekend of June 2024. Until then, CCS organizes a number of annual student activities on the topic of digital skills. The 1st round of Bebras informatics competition and the 1st round of the Informatics Olympiad will be held in December, while the deadline for registrations for the First Lego League robotics competition ends. For information on all CCS activities, visit www.ccs.org.cy and contact 22460680.

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Stakeholders:

• Organizer: Cyprus Computer Society (CCS)
• Co-organizers:
  • University of Cyprus
  • Cyprus Youth Organization
  • IET Cyprus Local Network (Board members are the core of the IET Cyprus Local Network)
• Under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Christodoulides
• With the approval of:
  • Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth
  • Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber of Cyprus (ETEK)
• Diamond Sponsor: Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy and Research and Innovation Foundation as sponsor
• Technology Partner: XM
• Youth Supporter: Bank of Cyprus
• Gold Sponsor: Neapolis University Pafos
• Silver Sponsors:
  • Engino
  • Huawei
  • Kardex
  • Hellas Sat
• Bronze Sponsors: Novatex Solutions Ltd, ZEBRA Consultants, NETinfo & ICDL
• Gifts: Robo.com.cy
• Universities: University of Nicosia, European University Cyprus, Frederick University of Cyprus, UCLan Cyprus
• Supporters:
  • Technical equipment from Logicom Distribution & CISCO Meraki
  • Social Media by Panis Pieri
  • Services from gra.des, C.K. Matrix exhibitions partners, Arnold's Digital Printers
  • ACM, IEEE, Association of Computer Science Teachers and Association of Computer Science Teachers Association of Design and Technology Professors
• Communication Sponsors: Cyprus News Agency, Alpha Cyprus, Reporter, Super FM, StudentLife.com.cy, Infokids.cy