18 February 2015

Moscow teams of young robotics engineers took home 49 awards at the 7th All-Russian Robotics Festival RoboFest organized by Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation

Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation held the 7th All-Russian Youth Robotic Festival RoboFest on February 12-13 that brought together 700 teams comprising of 3,000 schoolchildren and students aged 8-25 from 52 Russian regions, 117 cities and from abroad (Romania, Belarus and Kazakhstan).

Young Muscovites represented by 800 people in 200 teams have won in overall standing with 49 awards including 16 gold medals, 15 silver and 15 bronze ones. Among the winners is Moscow-based Arbuziki team that secured third place at the FIRST Lego League International (FLL) competition in St. Louis in 2014 for the presentation of their flood-defence project. At RoboFest-2015, Arbuziki took the first prize for their FLL Project and the second place for FLL Game. Along with Arbuziki, a team from the Moscow University of Mechanical Engineering (MAMI) has taken several prizes.

A total of 16 teams from Russia’s second largest city of St.Petersburg became the second award-winning participants with 11 prizes including 6 gold medals, 4 bronzes and one silver. Among the winners are students of St.Petersburg physics and mathematics lyceum #30 who won the Games in the FIRST Tech Challenge.

The third place in overall standing was saved by the teams from southern Krasnodar region that was represented by 200 people from 55 squads. Young Kuban robotics engineers won 9 awards with three of them of the highest rank.

International contestants have also brought home a few prizes. Romanian engineers from the Tudor Vianu National College of Informatics have made it to the final of Game category of FTC. Belarusian participants became the third in the Engineering Project discipline and the second in Roboracers discipline.

RoboFest is a key competition within the Robotics program implemented by Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation. Currently the program unites over 20,000 schoolchildren and students from 62 Russian regions. The program aims to stimulate interest to the engineering professions.

The festival is organized by Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation, supported by Russian Ministry of Education, Agency for Strategic Initiatives, GAZ Group and En+ (parts of Russia’s largest diversified industrial group Basic Element) and other partners.
Viktor Pronkin, the first deputy CEO of Volnoe Delo Foundation:

“Since the start of the program, 30% of participants have graduated from technical universities and started their engineering careers for big Russian companies and enterprises. Only GAZ Group has hired more than 40 people, former participants of RoboFest competitions over the last year. I believe Robotics program that we’re developing, will breed the further generation of professionals for many Russian industrial companies.”