18th year of the Trenčín Robotics Day

It motivates primary school pupils to study technical fields at secondary vocational schools. It leads secondary school pupils to study at technically oriented universities. It presents young creators with their own ideas and solutions before potential employers of technically oriented companies. At the same time, it gives space to primary and secondary school pupils for discussion with experts in technical fields from companies and universities, and develops their critical thinking and creativity.

Last but not least, the pupils gain experience in working as well as in a foreign language in an environment in which everyone wants to help everyone. The competition jury has the most difficult position in the Free style category. In it, students can present any technical product. The main evaluation criterion is not the time of passing through, even if complicated, courses, but the jury must be able to assess the degree of intellectual input and creativity of the students. This year, in this category we were intrigued by a witty use of a PLC in diagnosing the physical abilities of seniors – how else – in the form of a competition between two actors sitting opposite each other. The first part of the task evaluates the reaction time to a light stimulus. The second part evaluates emerging Parkinson's disease, where for each touch of a ring against the track, 1 second is added to the time of passing through the 3D course.  The technical creations were not only a demonstration of their skills, but also of the creativity and original thinking of the young creators.

The competition is announced by the Ministry of Education. Personal patronage over the event was again taken on by the chairman of the Trenčín Self-Governing Region, the mayor of the city of Trenčín and the president of the Association of Mechanical Engineering Industry of the Slovak Republic - Alexej Beljajev. The Association of Mechanical Engineering Industry of the Slovak Republic also supported the competition this year with a financial gift.  60 teams from 27 primary and secondary schools took part in the competition. In total, 91 robots were presented in the competitions. 19 companies came to show the future students their employment opportunities. We value the long-standing participation in the event by Czech universities – Mendel University Brno, Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín, the University of Žilina and the Technical University in Košice and Prešov. 

The 18th year of TRD once again connected generations for the purpose of promoting science and technology among young people. We look forward to what the Secondary Vocational School Trenčín will come up with in the field of robotics, automation and AI in 2025. 

Sources: sostn.sk, skolske.sk, tsk.sk