A team of learners from Tshwane, mentored by the University of Pretoria’s (UP) MakerSpace centre and a group of UP engineering students, was placed sixth out of 180 teams from around the world participating in the annual FIRST Global Challenge Robotics Olympics in Mexico City.
The teams were required to build and code their own robot. Team South Africa (which nicknamed itself ‘The Springbots’), in addition to placing sixth, won The Walt Disney Award for Imagination and Creativity, awarded to the team that displays the most creative approach to problem-solving. The award was largely due to Team SA’s performance in the qualifying round, during which they collected the most points ever scored in a qualifying round, against previous record-holder Team Venezuela.
UP’s MakerSpace centre and a group of engineering students…