The first edition of the Robotics World Cup FIRST Global Challenge 2018 started today in Mexico City with the aim of finding scientific solutions to global problems such as environmental deterioration, the water crisis, nuclear attacks or diseases that have not yet been cured.
Young people from 193 countries around the world will compete until the 18th in challenges divided into 4 categories: sustainability, health, safety and quality of life. During the activities, you will learn the importance of teamwork and scientific thinking, which tomorrow will be used to build a better world.
The challenges to be solved by the participants are related to the 14 major engineering challenges of the 21st century identified by the national engineering academies of the United States, China and the United Kingdom.
During the inauguration at the Mexico City Arena, the founder of FIRST Global, Dean Kamen, explained that the reason for this competition, which simulates sports Olympics, is to encourage thousands of young people to grow up watching other young people like them compete, but this time using their technological and scientific skills, instead of the physical qualities.
According to him, this idea of scientific competition arose from the hope that one day, as happens now with sports, which serve as inspiration for children and young people, science can serve as an inspiration for new generations.
“I said to myself: you do not have to invent a new model, sports work, you have to invent a new sport for which children have passion,” he said.
It was then that he saw that science was the perfect sport to achieve his purpose, and he thought that Mexico was the best place to do this first edition.
The main reason was that this year marks 50 years since the Latin American country was host to the 1968 Olympic Games.
At the inauguration, the president of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, was honored that his country is the first after the United States to host a scientific Olympiad.
In addition, he said he was “sure that this global robotics competition will make its contribution to solve the problems that the world is facing.”
The president cited global warming as the biggest problem the planet suffers and warned that nations can not continue to think individually, since “countries that emit more emissions to the world not only affect their country, but the entire world” .
To this he added that “countries with fewer resources are the ones that suffer the most from the impacts of that global warming”.
After the president’s speech was held a lavish show that combined aerial acrobatics, fireworks, lights, dance and a spectacular stage that was shaped as the choreography progressed.
About 50 Mexican dancers with bare chests, painted faces and feathers on their arms and heads were deployed on the Mexico City Arena.
They danced to the sound of drums and music that emulated the Mayan and Aztec culture while a scene was sprouting from the stage in which four gigantic serpents predominated, throwing confetti through their mouths.
At the same time, on a white surface, images of the four elements were projected, thus emphasizing the central axis of this robotics world: helping the planet.
