The 8th international open festival of children’s scientific and technological creativity ROBOART 2022 was held from 21 to 27 March. The event was held online, allowing children to stay together during the time of pandemic, though not near each other. The competitions and contests included both experienced young designers and beginners taking their first steps in technical creativity.
ROBOART was organised using Linkchat, a Russian video conferencing service. The festival was organised by Voronezh State University and the Experimental Technical School. GK Angstrem, GK Intechros, GS Leader public organisation, and AO KBKHA helped to organise and held the festival, it was also supported the Department of Education, Science, and Youth Policy of the Voronezh Region.
The festival aims to reveal and develop students’ creativity and interest in scientific activities, to attract the attention of talented young people to the high-tech industry, to create opportunities for intellectual development of schoolchildren, to support gifted children, including career guidance and further education, and to strengthen the creative relationship between academic staff.
Schoolchildren from 43 regions of the Russian Federation and 3 republics (Belarus, Armenia, and Kazakhstan) took part in ROBOART 2022. A total of 1,038 applications were received from participants from 126 locations and 178 educational organisations. The teams represented their regions, from the Far East to the Crimea, from Amursk and Magadan to Simferopol, from Arkhangelsk to Stavropol. Almost all Siberian regions were represented: the Krasnoyarsk and Transbaikal Territories, Irkutsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, and Chelyabinsk Regions.
The festival included 9 types of robot competitions, 12 exhibition sections, 7 categories of project competitions, 2 categories of Olympiads, and an online tour to the workshops of Intechros, where participants were familiarised with the manufacturing of mobile robots.
The works of the participants was assessed by the leading designers of the KBKHA, who noted the high level of the 3D modelling projects.
There were 163 awardees of the festival: 36 teams (55 participants) won 1st place, 39 teams (59 participants) took 2nd place, and 37 teams (49 participants) took 3rd place. The teams consisted of 1 to 3 people.
The festival organisers are particularly grateful to the volunteer students of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics, Informatics, and Mechanics of VSU who assisted as moderators of the festival venues, members of the expert boards of the exhibitions and project competitions, as well as the judges of the competitions.
