THE winners of the Brunei Robotics Olympiad (BRO) 2015 were announced in a ceremony yesterday, lauding the creative and technology skills of students around the country.

In the Regular Category, Ahmad Tajuddin Primary School emerged as the champion of the Primary Level for Year Four to Six and Sufri Bolkiah Secondary School dominated the Secondary Level for Year Seven to Nine. No teams won the Secondary Level for Year 10 to 11 and Pre-University.

A total of 177 students from 35 schools competed in the Regular Category, which required participants to build robots for challenges titled Pearl Diving, Treasure Hunt and Mountaineering.

The Open Category was conquered by St Andrew’s School in the Primary Level for Year Four to Six and Berakas Secondary School in the Secondary Level for Year Seven to Nine. St Andrew’s School was also crowned winner of the Secondary Level for Year 10 to 11 and Pre-University.

Unlike the Regular Category, the 54 students from 18 schools participating in the Open Category were given free rein to build their robots under the theme of Robot Explorer.

The acting head of the Science, Technology and Environment Partnership (STEP) Centre remarked their achievements at international level are “still less than satisfactory and consistent, but showed improvement from the previous year”.

“I would like to stress here not every team who won at national level will be selected to represent the country in the World Robot Olympiad competition,” said Sarimah Abu Bakar in her speech.

Following the announcement of this year’s BRO winners, she explained further evaluation would be carried out in selecting a team to represent the sultanate at the upcoming WRO 2015 competition slated to take place in Doha, Qatar in November.

Sarimah also urged the students to develop their interest in robotics as creative and innovative areas such as robot technology is set to gain traction in the future.

“This can be seen when robots are required in helping to deal with complex and dangerous situations particularly when natural disasters occur. If students are interested to pursue this field, keep studying and seek advice from the relevant agencies,” she said. The ceremony was held at the Anggerek Desa Technology Park, where Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB) Acting CEO Hjh Hasnah Hj Ibrahim presented the prizes and trophies.

BRO aimed to develop as well as strengthen the creative and technology skills of students, which are essential for the 21st century particularly in the realms of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

The competition was organised by the STEP Centre in collaboration with Bluebox Services and supported by BEBD together with Sasbadi Holdings Bhd.

The Brunei Times