DENVER – The Colorado Convention Center will play host to the prestigious International Robot Olympiad (IRO) in December, 2013, marking the first time in the IRO’s 15-year history that it will be held in North America.
The IRO is an annual competition of the world’s top robotics students, with over 1,000 students from around the world participating. It is unique among robotics competitions, focusing as much on creativity and artistry as on technical skills. The marquee event, Robot Dance, has a universal appeal that cuts across social, cultural and academic boundaries.
Students at the IRO compete in over a dozen different competitions, Olympiad style, during the four-day event that also includes a variety of cultural activities and an educational symposium featuring world-renowned guest speakers.
The successful Denver bid was sponsored by Ameribotics, a local non-profit organization committed to whole-person development through robotics, in partnership with VisitDenver, and supported by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and U.S. Senator Michael Bennet.
"I believe Robot Dance is going to revolutionize the way we think about education," Ameribotics Executive Director Randy Menzer said, "The skill set it takes to make a robot tell a story, and then program it to express that 'story' in dance form, is truly like an intellectual 'Super Food'."
Headquartered in Colorado, Ameribotics is working to create a variety of opportunities for educators and students that introduce them to robotics. Ameribotics camps and competitions work to engage children (and adults) in real-life, project-based, hands-on problem-solving exercises, at the same time blending art and science and promoting both left-brained (logical) and right-brained (conceptual) development.
