Robots built by students to compete in golf tournament
dubai — Robots built by UAE students will be competing in an upcoming mini-golf tournament and will also aim to impress judges with their bot “personalities”.
The nine-hole mini course tournament, called ParOne Invitational STEAMathalon, will see the participation of robots built by 125 students from 17 UAE schools, including the Dubai Autism Centre.
The competition is being organised by Canadian tech firm Kalebr, with an aim to help pupils with innovation and creativity by training the artificial intelligence (AI) within bots.
“We’re seeing a lot of schools on the leadership level understanding that they need to address these skills shortage or they need to include these things within their curriculum. However, they’re facing challenges when it comes to organising their timetables or even finding resources that address or check all of these boxes,” Aaditya Tangri, co-founder and CEO of Kalebr Americas and founder of STEAMathalon, told Khaleej Times.
“The golf tournament that we’re doing right now is called ParOne, and it’s meant for students between the ages of 11 and 14. The purpose of the competition isn’t to code, it’s to understand the concept behind AI, to train the AI, and to create an engaging personality of their ‘golfbot’.”
The students have to give their
We’re trying to teach the students that if you have a great product, that’s not enough. You have to engage with the audience and get feedback.”
Aaditya Tangri, founder of STEAMathalon
bots a unique identity and background story. For example, the bots built by students include a fashion designer, a surfing instructor, a sporting coach, and a radio DJ.
The audience at the tournament can log on to the STEAMathalon’s online platform and engage with these different bots via chat, where they can also experience their personalities and vote for their favourite bots.
“We’re trying to teach the students that if you have a great product, that’s not enough. You have to engage with the audience and get feedback. We’re teaching them social media and product marketing as well,” Tangri said.
Expert judges, community votes and social media interaction are combined to decide the winners in categories, ranging from creativity to sportsmanship to STEAMathlete pro level.
Young learner teams will be scored on innovation, creativity, sustainability, positivity and their AI project as a whole.
Kalebr has created 12 STEAMathalons in the past, which address STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics), coding, promoting digital citizen, UN’s sustainable development goals, 21st-century skills and well-being.
The team has held workshops with the students taking part in the mini-golf tournament to help them with their bot projects.
“Three years ago, we started a pilot called Happy Plants STEAMathalon, which we launched in partnership with the KHDA (Knowledge and Human Development Authority),” Tangri said.
“That was about students creating AI plants. That was very successful, and we had about 88 schools participate in that. We went back and we created 12 such STEAMathalons, from Grade One to 12. They address the themes such as sustainability, wearable technology, logistics, autonomous shipping and what the real world challenges are.”
The tournament is taking place from April 25 to April 26 at The Els Club, and entry is free for the public.