National News Agency - The University of Sciences and Arts in Lebanon USAL hosted the trial day for the teams taking part in the fourth annual Robot Championship 2018 (ARC4), organized by the Kalimat Association in cooperation with the municipality of Haret Hreik and the Teachers' Gathering in Beirut, and with the support of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, which will be held on the campus of the Lebanese University on Saturday 21/04/2018.
This competition, in which creativity and challenge predominate, aims to help school pupils, university students and those interested in science and technology to bring out their energies and their capacities; during it the participants work on designing and programming robots that compete with one another in various fields.
The supervisor of the robotics subjects at the university Dr Mohammad Al-Hajj affirmed “the university's keenness to be a supporter and a principal partner of the programmes and competitions that contribute to promoting the teaching of robotics and artificial intelligence, in light of the broad and rapid technological development of everything around us, such that technology has become our daily sustenance”.
He pointed out that “the informational and programming aspect occupies the principal part of a robot's intelligence, or what is called artificial intelligence, which in turn helps in carrying out difficult and complex tasks based on mental capacities copied from human capacities”.
He noted that “the university is working, in coordination with various educational bodies, on integrating robotics with the other sciences such as physics and mathematics, so that the student's level of understanding of these sciences improves and he sees how important they are at the technological level”.
For his part the director of the Kalimat Association and member of the competition's organizing committee Professor Samih Jaber stressed “the importance of the cooperation with the University of Sciences and Arts in Lebanon and the support offered by its administration, especially the educational scholarships for the winners”, thanking the university for “hosting the trial day on its campus”.
He added: “This competition is the largest at the level of Lebanon and Syria, with more than 125 educational institutions taking part across the area of the homeland, and with 198 teams formed comprising 960 participants from among university and school students at the various academic stages.”
At the close of the meeting, the students competed in various fields and tested their readiness for the main competition that will take place at the Lebanese University.
