The Greek National Robotics Team “FIRST Global Challenge Team Greece” represented Greece in the FIRST GLOBAL Challenge “Discover and Recover 2021” Robotics Olympiad, which was held remotely from 27 June 2021 to 25 September 2021 and managed to bring the Gold Medal in the field of Health in the FIRST Global Challenge Award category, the Silver Medal for the project “Panacea” and the Bronze Medal for winning the 3rd place in the overall ranking of the Olympiad. It is the first time that a Greek Robotics Team manages to bring to our country in a World Organization medals in all competition categories, but also in the general World ranking at the same time.
The Greek National Team was launched on the initiative of the non-profit educational non-profit association Eduact – Action for Education. Eduact has been introducing new educational programmes for all the children of tomorrow in Greece since 2013, through innovative actions that cultivate the skills of the future. The cornerstone of our project is the introduction of educational robotics in skills workshops from their pilot implementation.
In 2018, Eduact managed to put our country on the map of the global organization of the FIRST GLOBAL Challenge Robotics Olympiad. This was followed by an open call addressed to students of our country and today, the team consists of 30 children from all over Greece aged 14-18 years old, who were selected based on their knowledge in programming and robotics, their interest in science, their experience from participation in similar national and global competitions and the motivation to have such an opportunity in knowledge. The above were evaluated by a special committee, composed of educational academics and members of the Board of Directors of the organization responsible for the organization in Greece – Eduact – in order to make the final selection of the representatives.
Students from Thessaloniki, Attica, Attica, Patras, Nafpaktos, Orestiada, Crete worked intensively throughout the summer and created the robot Panakeia – a home autonomous nurse that can take basic measurements from patients, inform medical staff and disinfect a small space, the robot Heron, which can precisely move along defined paths, collect and transport objects, launch balls and cubes into the distance and lift its own weight, and finally, their version of the so-called Cubesat, a small weather satellite programmed to study atmospheric data and inform the ground station of potential fires.
The FIRST GLOBAL Challenge Robotics Olympiad is a global robotics, science and technology event involving national teams from 190 countries with children aged 16-18 years old. This year’s Olympiad “Discover and Recover 2021” was the 2nd FIRST Olympic event held exclusively at a distance and aimed to enable young people around the world to research and propose innovative solutions to address the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in four areas: health, education, economy and environment:
1. Education: The teams’ solutions should be oriented towards how they can build effective, resilient, equitable and personalized education systems that are not limited to a “physical” classroom, making learning accessible to all, everywhere.
2. Environment: the teams’ solutions must be geared towards efforts to invest in a more sustainable future for our planet, necessary to ensure both short and long term vitality for our communities and the planet.
3. Health: As health challenges continue to emerge and evolve, the groups’ solutions must be geared towards improving access, efficiency and affordability of healthcare as the important keys to improving global health.
4. Economy: Group solutions should be oriented towards creating a more resilient economy that can function productively both offline and online, collaborative innovation and investment.
The Olympiad evolved in 3 phases. For the first phase (Solutions Challenge Award), the Greek National Team chose the very nerve-wracking health sector and developed Panakeia. For the second phase, the Greek team had to create an alliance with a team from a different continent that had chosen the same thematic category. The creation of alliances is one of the most important parts of the Olympiad, as it creates the conditions for young people from all over the world to come together, to work and learn together, and to present a common proposal, overcoming the limitations imposed by borders, different languages, different cultures. Greece and Canada proceeded together to the third phase (Solution Grand Challenge Award) and combined their innovative solutions into a joint integrated proposal, which was declared world-leading.
The participation of the Greek National Team in the FIRST Global Challenge Olympiad is the culmination of the National Robotics & Innovation Championship FIRST® CHAMPIONSHIP GREECE implemented by Eduact – Action for Education. The guidance of the team has been undertaken by Mr. Anastasios Kollias, Doctor of the University of Athens, partner and LEGO Education Trainer of O3 Out of the Ordinary, scientific partner of Eduact and the Greek Team.
Gold Sponsors of the team are: TITAN, KLEEMANN, Hellenic Gold. The company Healthwatch S.A. also supports the team and the hospitality of the team has been kindly offered by: the Thessaloniki Tech Lab in cooperation with the Embassy of the United States of America, the camp of HANTH in Agios Nikolaos Halkidiki and mellonlab in Piraeus.
Get to know the National Robotics Team FIRST Global Challenge Team Greece through its Facebook page facebook.com/fgcteamgreece, Intagram @fgcteamgreece and its website www.gnrt.gr.
