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ROBOFEST 2013 goes to Jaffna and Trinco to find hidden talents

In their fourth consecutive year, ROBOFEST annual robotic competition organized by SLIIT goes to rural areas in finding hidden talents. There were workshops carried out for school children in Jaffna and Trinco June this year. This is their story of finding hidden talents!

The Electrical & Computer Engineering Department of Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) organizes ROBOFEST. Organizing team is headed by Dr. Lasantha Senevirathne. ROBOFEST 2013 competition takes place under three categories; school, undergraduate and open. The final competition will be hosted at the Malabe campus premises on the 13th & 14th September this year.

To encourage young minds on the very popular field of “robotics”, ROBOFEST committee decided that they want to go out of Colombo. Jaffna workshop was held on 17th May. Trinco workshop was held at Kinniya Central College on 14th June. Many enthusiastic students around Jaffna and Trinco areas respectively were gathered for those events.

“Since the school category of the competition is open for school students island-wide; we believed that we needed to give more attention to schools in rural areas as they do not have sufficient exposure to modern electronics and robotics. When we held workshops last year, we saw many enthusiasts from areas far from Colombo participated. And on the day of the competition, it was clear that, they had to work harder to get down the parts to build the robot compared to students around the capital. But they were equally talented. They’ve been having a hidden talent all along and all they needed was a “little push” and a “friendly hand” to help with putting things together. And that is exactly what we did during our workshops. And now, it’s good to see a new enthusiast joining us every day” said the media correspondent of ROBOFEST.

ROBOFEST 2012

Last year’s competition school category was won by the project “Tinker” by Mahanama College Colombo 03. Second and third places were secured by projects representing Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala. More details of the last year’s competition can be seen here.

Below are a few captured moments from the event:

Robofest moments

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