On Tuesday, May 30, 2023, the NITRO Clubs multiplier event and the Robo Olympics competition within the NITRO Clubs EU – Network of ICT Robo Clubs project took place in Bucharest, at the headquarters of the Politehnica University of Bucharest (Project ID: 2020-1-BG01-KA202-079200), an Erasmus+ strategic partnership VET initiative in the field of robotics, implemented by organizations from Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia.
The event was organized under the coordination of the Politehnica University of Bucharest – UPB, with the participation of the National Association of Public Librarians and Libraries in Romania – ANBPR, as partners in the project.
The multiplier event was attended by representatives of high schools and schools interested in the field of robotics, teachers and coordinators of robotics centers in Romania, members of the Bucharest Municipal Council of Students, employees and volunteers of public libraries that host Robo Clubs centers, as well as exponents of organizations from Romania involved in the project consortium, with attributions in the organization of activities.
On the occasion of this multiplier event, UPB and ANBPR representatives reviewed the project objectives, the intellectual outputs developed, the results obtained, as well as a series of technical demonstrations regarding the operation of Arduino robots, based on the methodologies created within the project.
At the opening of the event, Mihnea Alexandru Moisescu, Dean of the Faculty of Automation and Computers, and Monica Drăgoicea, Project Coordinator on behalf of the Politehnica University of Bucharest, presented the main activities of UPB in the field of robotics and the synergies with the NITRO Clubs EU project, as well as the main results obtained.
Afterwards, Ioana Crihană, Project Coordinator within ANBPR presented the objectives assumed by the partners within the NITRO Clubs EU project, as well as the suite of intellectual outputs to which all members of the consortium contributed.
At the end of the multiplication event in Bucharest, the technical managers from Romania involved in the testing and validation of the software and hardware solutions of the project carried out some punctual demonstrations of the functionalities of the Arduino robots, involving following the line, solving the maze, overcoming obstacles, etc.
The second part of the day was reserved for the Robo Olympics competitions, in which the participants, organized in teams, competed in solving the tasks that were the subject of the robotics contest.
As a result of the tests included in the robotics competitions, the ranking of the winning teams was as follows: HELIX (1st place), SPOT-X (2nd place), SIRIUS2 (3rd place), HEX (4th place), SIRIUS I (5th place).
The Robo Olympics highlighted both the skills acquired within the project, as well as the reliability and speed of reaction of the Arduino robots which helped to fix and strengthen the robotics knowledge of the participating pupils and students.
As component part of the NITRO Clubs EU project, the NITRO Clubs EU multiplier event and the robotics competitions, held in Bucharest, put in a favorable light Romania’s concern for the development of STEM skills among children and young people, including those belonging to vulnerable groups.
Also, through these activities, the special involvement of the educational sector, the NGO environment and public libraries was reiterated in the promotion of technology and the running of Erasmus+ projects aimed at bringing undeniable benefits in the field of preparing children and young people for the jobs of the future.