Smilebots rank 18 at the Lego League World Championships in Houston, United States

The First Lego League World Championship in Houston ended  this weekend, with the Smilebots team from Ticino competing for the second time.

The team finished in 18th place out of 108 participants in the American final.

They are a group of children who are attending the final phase of the competition and a team supported by ated4kids.

"It was a very difficult competition - commented Corrado Corsale, group mentor of Smilebots group given the extremely high level of the teams present. But the boys performed very well during the three-day competition, achieving a final ranking of eighteenth place out of the 108 finalist teams from all over the world, which were present in Houston and out of over 40,000 teams that had enrolled and competed in the various preliminary stages of this competition since the start of the year".

Besides the actual robotics test, the Smilebots also presented an innovative project of a freight transport system, environmentally friendly and self-driving, given that the main theme of the competition this year was related to "Cargo Connect". For the demonstration, the boys built and presented to the jury a real working prototype that was a great success both among the jurors and the public who attended the competition. In this video shot prior to the start, you can see the tested prototype in waters in front of Gandria:

The judges had very positive responses also for what concerns the robot design, underlining the quality of the technological solutions developed and encouraging the boys to pursue this path. Now, the boys, that is Federico Corsale, Federico Colapicchioni, Leonardo Domeniconi, Pietro Botturi and Ruggero Domeniconi, will enjoy a little break from challenges and competitions. But their thoughts are already focused on the next leg, because they are thinking about the next competition that awaits them from October 13 to 16 in Geneva, where, in the First Global Challenge - the top level of the First Lego League - they will be competing with mechanical robots of far greater size and complexity. In fact, they are being proposed by EPFL as the only Swiss team to represent the Swiss Confederation."

A very special thanks goes to all the sponsors coordinated by ated-ICT Ticino that supported the Smilebots team and enabled them to experience this wonderful adventure in the USA. The sponsors are: Banca dello Stato del Cantone Ticino, Gtk Timek Group SA, PL3 & Partners CH Sagl, SUPSI- DTI, FormaTi Academy, 3(Audio Video, ARU SA, Marziale Brusini, City of Lugano, City of Massagno and all those who through crowdfunding have contributed to support the Smilebots.

For those interested in the next and new robotics courses, ated4kids is launching a rich program of appointments. More information is at www.ated.ch