Young Croatian roboticists have ranked among the 20 best robotic teams in the world after this year’s FIRST GLOBAL Challenge, a world robotics competition for high school students, held from August 17 to 19 in Mexico City, as announced by the Croatian Robotics Association.
The competition featured 161 teams from 155 countries, representing every continent, including the Hope team, composed of refugees. Croatia was represented by Leon Stjepan Uroić (2nd grade, XV Gymnasium, Zagreb), Matej Đudarić (2nd grade, Ruđer Bošković Technical School, Zagreb), and Nika Crnković (2nd grade, V Gymnasium), with mentors Boris Kržić and Ana Sović Kržić.
In the qualifiers, the Croatian team achieved five wins and three losses, which was sufficient to advance to the playoffs. In the playoffs, our alliance consisted of the Republic of South Africa, the Republic of South Korea, and Croatia.
In the round of 16, we defeated the alliance of Poland, Timor-Leste, and Ukraine. In the quarter-finals, our alliance team – South Korea – had a robot overturn, resulting in losses to the Maldives, Iceland, and Colombia.
The world champions became the alliance of Romania, Singapore, and Germany, while our team achieved a ranking among the 20 best robotic teams in the world.
