The Monte Vista based Booster Kids Robotics learners shined at the recently held World Robot Olympiad.
Marlize Keyser, principal, said over the past month, 19 teams competed in the Regional Explorer categories of the competition. Teams must design and programme Lego robots to do specific tasks in a two-hour time frame during the competition, she explained.
Booster Kids participated in three regional competitions.
On Friday 1 August nine teams participated at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). The Lego Legends (Daniel Meyering, Troy Petzer and Delcio Pinho) ended in first place and the Tech Titans (Waldi Erasmus, Luke Burger and Izel van der Walt) in second place in the Explorer Prime category. On the national rankings, the Lego Legends are in second place and the Tech Titans in fourth place.
On Friday 8 August six teams participated at Parklands College. At this event the Cyber Squad (Umar Coovadia, Mus’ab Gaibe and Zuhayr Ghansar) took first place in the Explorer Lite Category, followed by team Dynamite in second place with ( Zarah Ghansar, Zarahaa Bhikha and Eliel Zirebwa). On the national rankings, the Cyber Squad is second in South Africa and Dynamite is third. Team Checkmate (Ryan Fortuin, Jair February and Eli Kallis) took first place in the Explorer Prime category, followed by the Villagers team (Jared Stenekamp, Connor Fernandes and Aiden Valentyn). On the National rankings, Checkmate is in fifth, Keyser said.
On Saturday 23 August the last four teams participated at La Rochelle in Paarl. At this event the Thunder Cookies (Hayley Keyser, Sophie Ming Chong and Mari-Louise Snyman) dominated the Explorer Lite category ending in first place, followed in second place by the Creepers (John Smuts, Retief Snyman and Gabriel Naidoo). The Thunder Cookies are currently ranked first in South Africa.
In the Explorer Prime category the Mars Rovers (Liam v Rooyen, Aisha Gaibe, Juno Bouwer) achieved a phenomenal result, securing first place on the day, followed in second place by the Cyber Coders (Gideon Snyman, Liam Esterhuyse and Katryn Lombard). The Mars Rovers are currently ranked first in South Africa, said Keyser.
A total of 264 teams participated nationally.
Booster Kids have 14 teams that are ranked under the Top 64 teams that will be competing in the national final competition on Friday 12 September.
