RP takes silver in World Robot Olympiad

Alexander Villafania INQUIRER.NET MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippines took home the silver medal at the recently held World Robot Olympiad 2008 in Yokohama, Japan. The Philippine team known as “Gracean Whizkids” from Grace Christian Elementary School beats 21 other schools. The team is composed of Joseph Aldrin Chua, Edrich Hans Chua and Dominique Hannah Sy. They were coached by Melanie Tizon and Warren John Ong Pe. Their project, dubbed "The G-Tech Robot Engineering a Better World," included 12 different types of robots doing various types of activities to save the environment. The Open Category required contestants to create robots under the theme, "Saving the Global Environment." Teams were judged according to appearance, uniqueness, interactive behavior, good engineering and stability. All the robots were made from parts of LEGO toys. South Korea took the gold medal in the elementary school level for open category, while Malaysia won bronze medal. South Korea also won gold medals for the Regular Category in the Elementary and High School Levels. The country was also represented in WRO 2008 by Benigno Aquino High School and the International School of Manila. They took 6th place in the Open Category in the High School and Elementary categories, respectively. This is the first time that the Philippines won a medal in the Elementary Level Open Category. The country had won medals in the High School Open Category in previous years.