Egyptian University Students Win Medals at MIT’s Robocon International Design Contest

Egyptian university students have one silver and bronze medals at the final competition of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Robocon International Design Contest. The participating teams include students enrolled on behalf of the Centre of Excellence for Energy at Ain Shams University, which supports fifteen students and four junior faculty members representing a variety of Egyptian universities including Ain Shams, Aswan, and Mansoura universities to participate in the competition and a Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate curriculum enhancement workshop. Additionally, it was announced by MIT that Egypt’s Centre of Excellent for Energy at Ain Shams University was awarded the opportunity to host the 2021 International Robocon Engineering Design Contest.

The 2019 Robocon International Design Content hosted by MIT included undergraduate engineering students from ten countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand and the United States. The participants were segregated into multicultural teams consisting of a student from each country. The participating teams presented their robotic creations after 2 weeks of non-stop design and development. The blue team represented by one Egyptian student from Menoufia University won the gold medal. Silver and bronze medallists included Centre of Excellence for Energy students; Yehya Helmy from Mansoura University and Shaza Mansour, a Ain Shams University Energy Engineering student.

The teams had 12 days to design and build their robots using identical material provided in the design kit which contained approximately 60 parts. Fuelled by creativity and engineering knowledge, each team worked hand in hand to overcome the challenges presented by the event’s design theme: to design and create a robot capable of moving, climbing a boundary to place a flag on mountain, collect rock samples, and more. Each accomplishment received is allocated points based on the difficulty of the challenge, but ultimately, the robot needs to be able to move up and down a ramp for the design to be successful.

The Centre for Excellence for Energy was established by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. Through this partnership, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Ain Shams University are soon-to-be producing high-quality applied research in energy, delivering top-notch training in engineering, and creating an innovative energy ecosystem that is focused on meeting local standards and contributing to economic growth. As part of Egypt’s 2030 Vision, the Centre of Excellence for Energy supports research that is vital to Egypt’s economic growth and job creation, while creating scholarship opportunities for students to pursue studies in energy-related fields, as well as developing energy engineering curricula that includes relevant courses and degree programs that address challenges identified by leading industry partners.