Syrian refugee team wins world robotics competition

A team of five Syrian refugee teams has won the world’s biggest robotics competition in Dubai by building a robot to help clean the pollution from the ocean.

Team Hope led the four-team alliance in the final of the First Global Challenge 2019 in Dubai. The team of five members includes Maher El Assawi, Ammar Kabbour, Salam Al Farekh, Youssef Shaaban, and Amina Kabbour, was supervised by Yemen Alnajjar.

First Global Challenge competition held in Dubai with 1500 students participated from 191 countries. It is the first time this event happened outside the Americas. Teams of students participated in a little friendly competition between their robots. Their task was to build a competitive robot that could help to clean waste from the world’s ocean.

Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, of the United Arab Emirates and the Chairman of the Executive Office of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in the Government of Dubai, Mohammed Al Gergawi, said “The visions, goals and aspirations of the young people from different countries of the world that have competed in leveraging robotics and artificial intelligence to find solutions to global challenges raises hope for a better future, led by young people, who are determined to improve standards of living.”

Syrian refugee team presented two robots in the competition, named “Robogee”, one robot educates people on the struggle of refugee and the other one can clean the pollution in the ocean. Team Hope consisted of students aged between 13 to 17.