08/02 2012

With the support of Luxoft company the teams of the ORT network schools in Russia and Ukraine will take part in the competition "Robotraffic 2012"

Luxoft company has provided an opportunity for teams of six ORT network schools in Russia and Ukraine to take part in international competitions in Robotics in Israel.

Robotraffic Contest organized by the Leumi Robotics Center of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of Israel Institute of Technology - Technion, traditionally devoted to the problems of Robotics for traffic safety.

According to the organizers the main objectives of the contest are:
1. Familiarizing students with the rules of the road;
2. Understanding the limitations of car and driver;
3. Development of sensors and systems by the contestants, which eventually will be implemented in real systems to reduce the number of traffic accidents;
4. Education of the contestants in the field of high technology (in the interdisciplinary field of robots and sensors);
5. Develop the team working environment;
6. Determination of the place of Israel in the forefront of Robotics systems for traffic safety.
Competitions are held in several steps (tasks): safe driving (when several car-robots have to move, following the rules and traffic lights, on a difficult track); race on speed; the presentation and test on traffic rules.
March 15, 2012 in Haifa, the third contest "Robotraffic" will take its place. Last year in this very prestigious competitions the team of ORT network school for the first time took part - two boys and a a teacher of the Moscow ORT Technology School (Gymnasia # 1540): 10^th grade student Kirill Yurkov, 11^th grade student Alexei Shtern and IT and Technology teacher Ruslan Myronivskiy. Also the teacher of Dnepropetrovsk ORT Resource and Technology Center Natalia Goshkador were invited at the competition.

At the end of March 2011, during the Robotics Olympiad among ORT network schools in the CIS and Baltic States, held in Dnepropetrovsk, a videoconference was organized in which Ruslan and Natalie told about their experiences. Then the idea came of the participation of the best teams of ORT network schools in the CIS and Baltic States in “Robotraffic 2012" .

In autumn 2011 between ORT and Luxoft - one of the world's leading companies in software development – the arrangements to support in organizing the trip for the team of ORT network schools in Russia and Ukraine at the contest "Robotraffic 2012" were achieved. Luxoft experts involved in the process actively. During November - December 2011 students tours to the Luxoft offices in Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk and Kiev took place. From Haifa to ORT network schools in Dnepropetrovsk, Kiev, Moscow, Odessa and St. Petersburg sets of equipment were delivered.Preparing for a competition is underway. Twice a week the teachers who supervised the preparation of teams are going to a conference in Skype and setting together dismantle equipment, technical and program issues. The candidates are already selected to participate in the trip, school teams train hard to show the excellent results in this contest.