Local Students Headed to Doha for World Robotics Olympiad

From left, Lawrence Technological University Provost Maria Vaz congratulates Christopher Geng and Kevin Xue, both of Northville, and Charles Lui of Canton, whose RoboFest team took first place in the Regular University category at the U.S. competition. (Photo via Facebook)

» Get Patch’s daily newsletter and real-time news alerts.

Three of the eight teams advancing to the World Robot Olympiad international championships in Doha, Qatar, next month are made up of kids from the Plymouth-Canton and Northville areas.

The competition takes place Nov. 6-8. Students earned the right to advance at U.S. finals at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield in September. LTU is the organizer of the competition in the United States.

The students headed to Doha include:

• Jason Brown and Kevin Tracz (Pi-Rho-Technics) of Northville, first place in the Regular Junior category.
• Brian Ding and Justin Chang of Northville and Eric Liu of Canton (RoboExplorers) first place in the Open Category.
• High school students Charles Liu of Canton and Christopher Geng and James Kevin Xue of Northville (Robofest team), first place in the Regular University category.

WRO started in Singapore in 2004, and this is the second year the United States will send a team, according to a news release. Nearly 20,000 elementary, middle and high school students as well as university teams from over 50 countries are participating.

Some 2,000 students from more than 50 countries will gather for the international robotics competition in Doha. There, they will learn STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects and develop their creative problem-solving skills through various robotics challenges, mostly using LEGO robots.

U.S. teams in the international competition are from Michigan, California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York.