Mexican teams dominated the primary school category of the World Educational Robotics (WER) contest held in Shanghai, China, last weekend, taking the top three spots.

Competing against robotic enthusiasts from more than 20 countries, the team representing West Heights International School in Monterrey, Nuevo Léon, was crowned champion after two days of competition in the Chinese city.

The team, competing under the name Warriors, was made up of sixth-grade students Ricardo Gael González Zamudio, Rafael Lua Oliver and Mariana Torrija Arturo and mentored by technology teacher Grace Irela Zamudio.

They have now arrived back at their school in the Nuevo León capital, where they were given a heroes’ welcome.

“. . . They prepared and practiced a lot for this competition and something very special is that there was a lot of unity between the delegation [of Mexican teams],” Grace Zamudio said.

Torrija explained that she and her teammates were responsible for programming their robot to complete all the challenges set during the contest.

“. . . We put in an infrared system, made it go forward and change directions, they gave us two hours [to do it],” she said.

Twelve-year-old Lua Oliver described the competition as very complicated.

“There was a lot of stress because we were up against 500 teams,” he said, adding that the team’s result showed that “there is good education in Mexico.”

The second and third places in the primary school category were taken by the María Fernanda Primary School in La Paz, Baja California Sur, and the Americano Anáhuac School in San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo Léon, respectively.

Torrija said that the three teams supported each other during the competition.

“. . . We gave each other tips and advice because we weren’t interested in winning ourselves, we cared more about Mexico winning . . .” she said.

Mexican teams also fared well in the high-school category.

A team from the Subiré school in León, Guanajuato, took fourth spot overall but was first in the international category, while a team from the Silao Conalep Technical School in the same state finished eighth overall but second out of the non-Chinese teams.

A team from another Guanajuato school, the No. 29 Tech. in Pénjamo, finished second in the middle-school international category.

Source: Notimex (sp)