Young technology talents delivered impressive performances at RoboCup

On April 2 and April 3 Innsbruck for the first time hosted the RoboCup Junior Austrian Open 2016: The event was organized by the Department of Computer Science of the University of Innsbruck, MCI and TiRoLab.

More than 350 young talents from the age groups of 11 to 14 and 15 to 19 entered into the competition of the 9th RoboCup Junior, which took place in Innsbruck for the first time. The technophiles from altogether ten different nations participated in three disciplines: “Soccer”, “OnStage”, and “Rescue”. The best teams qualified for the RoboCup Championship 2016 in Leipzig.

The well-known team of the Bundesrealgymnasium Kepler, which enthusiastically participated in the Cup already for the seventh time, won in the category for “Soccer”: The focus was on the robots, which were not operated via remote control, but rather appeared to play independently. In the category for “Rescue”, robots made their way through a maze to search for victims buried by a simulated earthquake. Pupils from Hungary were able to convince the jury with their rescue robots. The best local team from 103 participating groups consisted of pupils from the NMS Telfs: They were among the top three in the category “OnStage”, which asked the participants and their robots to perform on stage.

The RoboCup Junior is all about creativity and fun: Young talents should experience delight in experimenting with electronics and programming. Staff member of the MCI Department for Mechatronics and co-Organizer of the event Benjamin Massow explains: “Our aim is to spark young people’s interest for technology and help them overcome any reserve. Participants between 11 and 14 playfully enter the field via Lego. But we are delighted to see that the pupils quickly switch to building and programming their own robots.”

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