The finals of an international robotics competition for high school students took place at FEI STU in Bratislava, bringing together young enthusiasts of programming, robotics, and technical fields. The first year of the RoCoCo correspondence robotics competition, organized as part of the ICE-Robotics project, involved 18 teams from 11 schools across Slovakia and Austria. Throughout the competition, a total of 73 students tried their hand at solving robotics challenges over four correspondence rounds, with 53 of them attending the final in-person event at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of STU in Bratislava.
The competition was designed for high school students interested in technology, programming, and robotics. Over several months, the teams solved four correspondence tasks, gradually developing their skills with the mBot2 robotics platform. The tasks focused not only on programming itself but also on utilizing sensors, algorithmic thinking, designing custom solutions, and making structural modifications to the robots. Some tasks also required creating additional components, which the students then had to print on a 3D printer.
The culmination of the competition was the final round held directly at FEI STU. Students were given a brand-new challenge that they had to solve on-site. In a themed mission called Exploration of an Unknown Planet, their space robots became exploration rovers tasked with preparing the planet for colonization. The teams had to tackle various tasks—ranging from obstacle removal and surface exploration to object manipulation and creative communication.
"We were delighted to see that during the finals, the students demonstrated not only technical knowledge but also the ability to independently find solutions, cooperate, experiment, and respond to new situations. These precise skills are highly important in modern technical fields," stated the competition organizers.
The winner of the correspondence part of the competition was the GbeProBot team from the Secondary Vocational School of Electrical Engineering in Gbely. The teams The Magicians and Die Zukunft from the German School in Bratislava, along with other participating teams from Slovak and Austrian schools, were also successful. In the final round, the highest score was achieved by the Hálováci team from the SPŠE Hálová in Bratislava. Among the most successful here were also the M-team from the Mokrohájska United School and all teams from the German School in Bratislava.
The final event was not just about competing for prizes. Students and their teachers also visited the mobile and industrial robotics laboratories at the National Center of Robotics, where they saw practical demonstrations of robotics technology applied in industry. Furthermore, the competition showed that robotics can appeal to a wide spectrum of students. Approximately a quarter of the participants were girls, confirming a growing interest in technical disciplines even outside the traditional student demographics.
The RoCoCo correspondence robotics competition is part of the ICE Robotics project, which supports STEM education, the use of robotics and modern technologies in schooling, and connects schools from Slovakia and Austria. The project is funded by the Interreg Slovakia-Austria regional cooperation project and co-funded by the European Union.
