Kazakhstan’s national robotics team secured a place among the top four teams at the FIRST Global Challenge in Incheon, Republic of Korea, El.kz reports citing the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The team won all its qualifying matches and advanced to the playoffs.
Championship overview
The competition was held in Incheon, with teams from 185 countries taking part. Each team competed in the qualifying rounds to secure a place in the playoffs.
Kazakhstan’s national team won all its qualifying matches and advanced to the knockout stage undefeated. At the conclusion of the tournament, the team ranked fourth in the world standings.
“Kazakhstani school students won all 11 qualifying matches and advanced to the playoffs,” the Ministry of Education’s press service reported. The Ministry noted that the result demonstrates the students’ level of engineering expertise and their ability to work effectively as a team.
Kazakhstan’s team members
Hussein Maqsut, Nurtas Serik, Aspandiyar Berdali and Arnur Abdulla attend secondary school-lyceum No. 92 named after Mahatma Gandhi in Almaty. Four of the five team members represent the same educational institution, which can facilitate coordination and collaboration in robot design and development.
The fifth member of the national team, Yerassyl Endibay, is a student at Gymnasium No. 159 named after Ybyrai Altynsarin. All team members are students in grades 9 through 11.
About the competition and the significance of the result
The FIRST Global Challenge is an international robotics competition for school students who represent their respective countries. Teams typically build robots using standardised kits of components and complete tasks on a competition field based on challenges announced by the organisers in advance. Performance therefore depends on engineering design, programming skills and the ability to coordinate with other teams during matches.
The Ministry of Education noted that Kazakhstan’s national team had previously won the competition for four consecutive years.
