22 nations join robot tilt despite terror alert

MANILA, Philippines - This year’s World Robot Olympiad (WRO) was successfully launched at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City yesterday, with participants from 22 countries present despite warnings of possible terror attacks in the country.

“What better proof that the Philippines is a safe place? This proves that the country actually is safe,” said Mon Liboro, director of the Science and Technology Information Institute (STII) of the Department of Science and Teachnology.

The United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, and France have issued travel warnings against the Philippines, warning of a high risk of potential terror attacks.

The warnings came after a foiled attempt to send parcel bombs from Yemen to the US and the Aug. 23 hostage fiasco in which eight Hong Kong tourists were killed.

Ester Ogena, director of the Science Education Institute and WRO National Advisory Committee vice chair, said they thought the participants would withdraw after the hostage drama. “We were surprised that their (approach was) positive,” she said.

The participants tested and set up their robots while their relatives were taking pictures and cheering for their respective teams.

“Do you see fear in their faces? Are they scared? Is there any sign of any fear? Because they would rather look at the positive things, they left all these negative news behind them. Hopefully they carry this positive energy back to their countries,” Liboro added.

More than 1,000 foreign visitors flocked to the country to participate in the seventh WRO, including delegates from Australia and Hong Kong. The others who joined are from China, Denmark, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, and Malaysia.

Elementary and high school students from Oman, Peru, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Taipei, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and Ukraine also attended the competition.

Dubbed “Robots Promote Tourism,” this year’s WRO aimed to promote the country’s culture and heritage. It showcased the Philippines’ indigenous games as participants designed programs that enabled robots to play tumbang preso and palo sebo, among others, in the regular category.

Regular category contestants also played “Tour of the Philippines,” where programmed robots traced a route around a Philippine map, which was designed with ramps and curves that signify the country’s hills and islands.

For the Open Category, students were asked to create robots that will promote their country’s tourism using Lego products.

Malaysia’s Sekolah Sultan Alam Shah school created robots to play musical instruments needed for dikir barat, a native musical form that is usually used at weddings.

Afeew Shaszwan Bin Zambrac said they also included an “ironman suit,” which can be used by tourists to direct their Lego awok-awok (singers) to dance and sing.

“Oftentimes, tourists only watch performers then leave. But what we wanted was to give tourists a chance to participate in the performance,” he said.