Days of Robotics in Sochi – a triumph of young inventors

It turns out that our site mainly covers the development of foreign science, paying less time to the progress of domestic scientific thought. We will discuss the reasons for this state of affairs in this article later, and to begin with, we offer you a story about how a very important event took place in the Russian Olympic capital last weekend – the World Forum “Days of Robotics”, which filled us with hope and enthusiasm.





This international innovation festival was held from 21 to 23 November in the Main Media Center of the Olympic Park of Sochi and included several events held in parallel: the Innovation Forum, the World Robotics Olympiad (WRO Russia 2014), the Interactive Exhibition and the Robofest-South District Robotics Festival. During the forum, many conferences and round tables were held with the participation of officials of different levels, heads of educational institutions, business representatives and other guests interested in the development of robotics in Russia.





On the first day, after the Minister of Science and Education Dmitry Livanov got acquainted with the fruits of the creativity of young participants, at the opening press conference he announced plans to include robotics in the school curriculum. In some schools, such a subject is already present, and not only boys but also girls show interest in it.





Walking through the interactive exhibition, we saw many solutions that will stimulate and improve the inventive abilities of children from an early age. So with sufficient will, awareness and funding, robotics classes can be filled with interesting and accessible for children's understanding didactics. As they say, there would be a desire.





At a huge number of round tables and conferences, all issues related to the development of robotics in Russia were considered. Officials and business representatives sincerely acknowledged that Russia is currently at the bottom of the world ranking of countries in terms of the degree of involvement of robots in various spheres of life.





No less sad picture is observed with the training of qualified personnel who would choose this professional direction. To turn a person into a real specialist in the field of robotics, his education in this field must begin at an early age. None of the organizers of the forum had any doubts about this, and the very fact of holding an event with such an age range of participants testifies to the correct understanding of the issue.





At the same time, judging by the speeches of many speakers, the picture in Russia has begun to change in recent years: new robotics departments are opening, federal and regional authorities are supporting gifted children, and of course, small inventors have the opportunity to come together from time to time to share their experience and boast about their achievements. After all, for a unique child from a provincial school, where he feels different, it is important to understand that he is not alone, and that in other regions and countries tens of thousands of children share his passion.





Of course, no matter how high-ranking the guests of conferences and round tables were, the most important stars were children who came from 47 countries to fight in a difficult intellectual battle. Having the status of a space power, Russia in the preparation of tasks for the participants decided to focus on this topic.





Depending on the age group, participants were asked to create robots that had to perform tasks of varying levels of complexity. In addition to the main category, medals were also awarded in the free category, where participants had to submit their unique robot designs for a variety of purposes.





The guys approached the tasks as creatively as possible, trying to eclipse the brightness of their performances of representatives of neighboring stands. Some have succeeded, others have been less fortunate.





A separate item of the program, for which the winners also received medals, is robot football. Here, perhaps, the passions were tortured by the most stormy: “football” is a word that in itself implies drive and excitement. In accordance with the rules, the ball on the board area was to be driven exclusively by robots, and their owners were given a modest role of fans. And although the soulless machine could not feel the emotions directed at it, it seemed that the iron footballer was crying along with the losing participant.





During the panel discussions, not only robotics was discussed, but also more global issues were discussed. For example, representatives of Skolkovo discussed the ethical aspects of the future, in which robots will certainly play a more important role.





Returning to the beginning of the article, we must mention that during the round table with Deputy Minister of Communications Alexei Volin, the problem of closedness of Russian science to the press and the lack of desire to “sell” information about the latest achievements to a wide audience were discussed.





The round table was attended by representatives of scientific institutions, who are examples of active interaction with the press. Among them is Kazan University Innopolis, which is already well known in Russia and abroad.





The general tone of the discussion clearly indicated the readiness to break through the ice of mutual misunderstanding and to intensify the dissemination of the latest news about the achievements of the Russian technology industry to the masses. It is possible that the results of this meeting will soon be noticeable to you: Hi-News.ru plans to prepare some interesting materials about modern Russian scientists and inventors.





On Sunday, after conferences with the participation of Minister of Communications and Mass Communications Nikolai Nikiforov, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachev, the official results of the World Robotics Olympiad were summed up. As a result, the main winner was the national team of Thailand, which took home the most awards.





But as Christopher Rogers, a professor at Tufts University, said in his address to the participants, defeat is only an incentive for self-improvement. Therefore, the very fact of holding such an event is a great victory for everyone.





During the final conference, the All-Russian Robotics Olympiad was announced, which will be held next year. The battle for the future is just beginning. published

Source: hi-news.ru