Armenia’s team, represented by TUMO participants, win bronze

WASHINGTON—A team representing Armenia placed third during the annual FIRST Global robotics challenge, which concluded Tuesday at the DAR Convention center in the nation’s capital.

First Global organizes a yearly international robotics challenge to ignite a passion for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) among the more than two billion youth across the world.

TEAM ARMENIA: From left, Tigran Sahakyan, Davit Kirakosyan, Maria Ter-Minasyan, Aram Madancyan, Levon Balagyozyan, Lilit Tarumyan, Davit Hovhannisyan and Ashot Tarumyan. Team member Martun Poghosyan was not photographed.

In this year’s challenge, competitors were asked to design their robot to complete a variety of engineering tasks focused on “access to clean water,” and best cooperate in international robot alliances that have a variety of skills to accomplish these tasks because allianced that cooperate the best will be most prepared to succeed.

Armenia’s team was represented by students from the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies.

The students selected for FIRST Global are among those who have participated in the organization’s robotics workshops, have demonstrated the ability to work in a group, have numerous achievements in different fields and are dedicated to the fields of robotics and programming.

ANCA Leo Sarkisian Interns cheer on Team Armenia

FIRST Global provides the framework for an “olympics”-style robotics challenge where one team from every nation is invited to participate in a global robotics event that builds bridges between high school students with different backgrounds, languages, religions, and customs.

By bringing these future STEM leaders together in an engaging and collaborative competition that drives home the importance, excitement, and applicability of STEM education, FIRST Global inspires students to learn the skills they will need to make the discoveries their parents and grandparents would consider miracles, impossibilities, or just plain science fiction.