On 14 April, the main events of the 10th Interregional Open Festival of Children’s Scientific and Technical Creativity ROBOART was held in the main building of Voronezh State University. Both experienced designers and beginners in technical creativity from eight regions came to the university.
Traditionally, the event's partner was the Faculty of Applied Mathematics, Informatics, and Mechanics of VSU. At the opening of the festival, the dean of the faculty, Sergey Medvedev, talked about the importance of its creative component and wished the participants to bring their inventive potential to life.
Director of the non-commercial organisation “Experimental Technical School” Alexey Fedotov said to the participants and guests:
“For ten years the festival has been contributing to the discovery and support of young talents, implementation of their creative abilities, and the comprehensive development of the younger generation.
A representative of the Angstrem company, Natalya Zubkova, also gave a speech.
“The development of engineering competencies, automation, and programming is the core of production. Today, children have the opportunity not only to see and imagine the world of future technologies, but also to start creating it.
The anniversary festival was held in a mixed format. Young engineers had the opportunity to take part in thematic and interactive exhibitions, programming and 3D modelling contest, robot and project competitions. They also exchanged ideas and experiences during round table discussions and workshops and attended online excursions.
This year, more than 1,000 applications were submitted to the competition, and the selected participants represented 44 regions of Russia, including schoolchildren from Mariupol. Secondary and high school students presented their technical projects and robot models designed to make various production processes more efficient and help people in everyday life.
Igor Davydovich, festival participant from the “Robodrom” robotics and design club in Voronezh, said:
“This is my third time at the festival. My project allows identifying the maximum load capacity and noise level of a quadcopter. Every time I learn a lot of new things at this event.
This year, constructor robots, models of various machines, manned objects, and unmanned vehicles were presented at the ROBOART festival. Participants competed in such tasks as “Labyrinth”, “Trajectory”, “Staircase”, “Robofootball”, “Short track”, “Knight’s tournament”, “Warehouse”, and others.
Olga Filatova, mother of one of the participants, said:
“I was impressed by the scope of the competition and the number of schoolchildren interested in this stuff. For a child, this is an opportunity to learn about new design methods in order to implement their project and improve their creativity.
The demonstration of unmanned vehicle pilots in the gym of the main building was a spectacular part of the festival.
Alexey Zyryanov, further education teacher at Lyceum No. 2 said:
“This is the first time our team has taken part in the competition of this level. It is important for students to see how the competition is organised and what the requirements for robots and constructors are. For them, this is also an emotional shake-up, because the conditions for testing their robots are different from those they are used to. Such competitions teach them how to overcome difficulties and cope with anxiety”.
Mikhail Gavrilov, second year student from the Faculty of Applied Mathematics, Informatics, and Mechanics, event expert and volunteer, said:
“This year I decided to become a volunteer and an expert whose duties included assessing robots and counting votes. All participants had a desire to win and were really involved in the competitive process. I was amazed by the level of their preparation. Some presented their works as if they do it every day, they were clearly enjoying the presentation and the work on their project.
The festival concluded with an awards ceremony, where the winners of various nominations, both online and offline, received figurines with the festival logo, medals, diplomas, and memorable prizes from the organisers and partners of the festival.
The ROBOART festival has been held in Voronezh since 2015. It is aimed at popularising scientific and technical creativity and increasing the prestige of engineering professions among schoolchildren. It is one of the largest festivals for beginner designers in Russia. The event is supported by the Presidential Grants Fund.
The general partners of the festival are Angstrem, Intekhros, and GS Leader. It is organised by Voronezh State University and Experimental Technical School.
