A team of students from the University of Coimbra and the Coimbra Polytechnic Institute won the Gold Medal at the 19th Fire Fighting Home Robot Contest, an international robotics competition held last week at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, USA.
The Portuguese BeFree NewTech team was formed by Ana Figueiredo, Catarina Mendes, Paulo França, Rita Caldeira and Tiago Figueiredo. The BeFree NewTech category promotes the development of robotic therapy for people with disabilities.
The competition gathered 135 teams from seven countries, namely the USA, Canada, Mexico, Israel, Indonesia, China and Portugal.
The Trinity College Fire Fighting Home Robot Contest (TCFFHRC), started in 2003, is one of the world’s best known and long-lived international robot competitions. Students, engineers and robot enthusiasts of all ages compete at the Junior, Walking, High School, Senior, and Expert divisions. By designing, building, and operating autonomous robots students learn key engineering subjects and develop systems-thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork skills.
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