Dubai displays tech reputation with robotics
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates— Seeking to bolster its image as a forwardlooking metropolis, Dubai hosted the largestever international robotics contest thisweek, challenging young people from 190 countries to find solutions to global ocean pollution.
Event organizers say their selection of Dubai as host reflects a vote of confidence that this oilrich Emirati sheikhdom can be a global hub for innovation. They also expressed hope that bringing together tomorrow’s scientists and engineers will help develop technologies to solve the world’smost pressing issues, particularly those related to the environment.
Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST Global Challenge, said theMiddle East represents a part of theworld where “the adults have not learned howto play nice with each other” and itwas up to young people to fix humanity’s selfinflicted wounds.
“We are in an accelerating race toward catastrophe, whether it’s globalwarning, melting of the ( polar ice) caps, bird flu, terrorism— you name it, we’reworried about it. The solution to most of theworld’s grand challenges depends on better technologies thanwe have today,” he said.
“This globe of ours is on life support, so the thought iswe get every kid in every country to focus on learning howto use technology, but focus on using it as a tool and not aweapon,” he explained.
The unofficial “Robotics Olympics” seeks to encourage young people to pursue subjects known as STEM— science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Teams of four to five students, ages 1418, each received a kit of rods, wheels, wires and other rawmaterials withwhich to assemble their roving robots. Their task: Collect orange balls of various sizes from a playing field, which represented humancreated pollutants in the ocean. Some devised robots for scooping, while others snatched up and fired the balls through the air into the receptacles.
The teams then formed “alliances,” each with up of four nations, to battle their way to the final round. Overall, 1,500 students took part.
Ateam captained by Belarus, and including Syrian refugees, eventually won the gold medal, edging out a team captained by Israel in a dramatic final match. But organizers stressed amessage of unity, not conflict.
“The kids get it. To them this isn’t a competition; this is a ‘ coopetition.’ This is a celebration of technology,” said Kamen.
Previous events tackled challenges related to clean water access and sustainable energy.
Robotics is a natural fit for Dubai, a city that’s already testing driverless cars and taxis. It has become a magnet for international entrepreneurs, with an entire zone called “Internet City” that’s packed with hightech startups. Next October, Dubai will host the Expo 2020, welcoming technological breakthroughs from around theworld.
“Ifwe are to become the city of the future, we need to have the right talent from around theworld,” said Omar AlOlama, the 29yearold EmiratiMinister of Artificial Intelligence, the world’s first suchminister. “Artificial intelligence is based on data. Data iswhat drives all these newtechnologies. We have the holy grail of data. We have 200 nationalities represented in this country.”
FedEx recently announced Dubaiwould become the first city outside theU. S. to test Roxo, an autonomous delivery device that can travel on sidewalks and even unpaved surfaces.
Roxomade its debut international appearance at thisweek’s robotics contest, drawing the interest of the techsavvy teens hailing from places as diverse as Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. They mingled in Dubai’s Festival City, exchanging experiences and forming friendshipswhile talking shop about their gadgets.
“We didn’t do sowell in the matches becausewe had a lot of trouble with the control hub, but it doesn’t matter, we had a lot of fun,” said Stefan Sijbesma, 17, from theNetherlands. “For me, robotics is really important because it really helped me choosewhat Iwant to study andwhat Iwant to do withmy life.”
The threeday tournament had a festivallike atmosphere to it, with announcers and commentators analyzing the action in sportsbroadcast style and fanswaving flags and banners supporting their teams.