Graduates of the Electrical School Aleksa Covic i Marko Scepanovic they used to be fierce opponents at robotics competitions, today they have an NGO and pass on their knowledge in this field to younger generations.
"The first time we participated in a competition was in the sixth grade of elementary school, when we represented different schools, and we were rivals. It was the First Lego League, the competition had only been introduced then, and we had the opportunity to meet at the same four years. We already found ourselves in the same class when we enrolled in high school, so since the competition we met at was closed, we came up with the idea of starting it ourselves because we know how everything goes", Čović recalls his beginnings, as they agree in unison that today is when are all much easier in one team. However, while they competed separately, still as elementary school students, Šćepanović was more successful.
"I was a student of the 'Pavle Rovinski' elementary school and she was the most successful in robotics for years. Admittedly, the older team won prizes, but last year, in 2019, my team was first in the national competition and we went to the First Open Lego League, which was held in Lebanon," said Šćepanović.
Their love for robotics led them to create a team, but in the first year, the corona got in the way of their plans.
"That year, when we were first in secondary school, even though we were preparing because of the pandemic, everything was cancelled. Already from second high school, when the situation stabilized, we started working, and then we were second in the national championship, while last year we won the national one, and won third place in the regional competition in Hungary and were in the world competition in Germany." says Šćepanović.
In order to be able to pass on their experiences to younger generations, they founded the Association of Young Innovators and Inventors of Montenegro, and one of the goals is to bring back the First League competition, which was canceled in the meantime.
"That's why we got in touch with the organizers from the region, but also directly with the organizer whose representative office is in America. In the first year, we decided to take the teams to a competition that was held in Jagodina a few months ago. There were two teams from Podgorica and one from Bijelo Polje, and the best team qualified and participated in the finals of the Adria region, which took place in Ljubljana," said Marko, and the most successful team was the one from his primary school.
Robotics competitions have a rule that the team has a maximum of ten members plus a mentor, and they can be students from the sixth to the ninth grade.
"Some schools have teams that are divided into younger and older classes, while some have all ages represented," notes Marko and adds that they often hold workshops for younger roboticists.
"This area is not very well represented here, you cannot find someone who knows a lot about it, and we have been in it for about eight years. We saw that when robotics was our choice, there was no one to help us and realized that there are many children who will love it if someone shows them. When it comes to workshops, we went from school to school, teaching about robotics, we still do that, we had workshops in cooperation with the Youth Office and through some projects that were held in the center. It was only important to start educating the others and from there the story of organizing the competition again was born. We had an idea, we saw that the children were enjoying it and we returned to those rooms that were everything to us at the time, we are nervous, we know how it is for new competitors, plus we compete for high schools and we are good", says Aleksa Čović and reveals that not all elementary schools have their own robotics team.
"We are trying to get those who don't have it to introduce it as an optional course. Children are always interested in robotics and programming, it's just important to find a teacher from the school who manages to divert and keep their attention for all that, not only to make it interesting, but also to make them want to be part of the team", says Marko.
"When we are at workshops during lectures, I always emphasize one thing to children and teachers - that those four years during which we competed awakened my love for programming, so we continued through high school. Thanks to robotics, I had the opportunity to stay in Italy, Marko in Poland, now we are back from Slovenia, where we were for a month. Robotics has brought us a lot of trips, world competitions, all of these are significant experiences. Someone who looks at robotics as love, it will bring him a lot. I never studied robotics with a goal, we had successes and because of them someone notices and sends them on", adds Aleksa.
The interlocutors of the "Magazine" point out that the most important thing for dealing with robotics is informatics.
"Previously, there was no 'Scratch' program in elementary schools. Now the 'Lego Mainstorm' learning program is used, which is based on the same principle, so that we no longer have to explain to the children how everything works, but they quickly grasp things. As for mathematics, simple things are needed for robotics and they are not taught in school, but we have to explain them, which are some types of algorithms and just thinking", Čović reveals what else future roboticists need.
There are four stages of the competition and all are judged separately at the competitions.
"The first is a robo game - it's that robot that is released and has two minutes to complete the tasks on the table. That's where the scratch program is needed - that's programming, an idea is needed. The focus is on tasks that bring a lot of points to be completed as soon as possible, and the organization itself is important. It is something that cannot be taught. It's simply acquired through experience," Čović notes and adds that the second phase is robodesign.
"What matters here is how the robot will look, how practical it will be. It is important that the children make a robot that will be as useful as possible, but also that it looks nice," Čović notes.
The third phase is the project, and they say it is an "important item".
"When there is a topic like it was now - global warming, children have to figure out how to prevent it. There are ten technicians in the team, not everyone can be a good programmer, designer, and since there are up to ten of them in the team, their tasks are divided so that they do what they do best. This year, on the aforementioned theme, they made a large windmill on which there are solar panels and it rotates towards the sun. Through these tasks, they learn not only about robotics. "Tomorrow, when they come to secondary school, they won't have any dilemmas about what a solar panel is or they will know about areas that are not mandatory in primary school," Čović said.
The fourth stage is the basic values of the team, and according to him, this is where the children are given the task of solving the task on the spot.
"Usually it's putting together a puzzle or something, and then they're judged on how they're doing as a team. You can see when the children did not work on their own and when there is a great influence of the mentor, and that is exactly what brings them a lot of points", notes Aleksa.
All those robots that are made for competitions are prototypes for solving future serious problems, and Marko points out that children can be very innovative.
"In Ljubljana, there were 28 teams from the region, they all had the same topic, but there were 28 ways for them to solve the problem with their robots", recalled Marko, and explained that all the parts for the robot were made of Lego bricks.
"Lego has a special edition of robots, they have their own sensors, bricks, program, that's the motors, but all the other parts - armor, handles are made from Lego bricks", notes Marko.
"And again it happens that no two robot designs are the same, they are all different. Although most people think 'they're dice, what can be different with them' - there are too many combinations and everyone has their own. For some, the design is simple, for others it is complex," adds Aleksa.
Lego bricks are the first toys bought for children, and they can become interested in this branch of science from an early age.
"There are competitions from six to nine years, but that's the basis. They don't have difficult challenges, they serve more to get them interested and recognize themselves in it", says Šćepanović.
She would like to apply the knowledge she gained at the competitions in Montenegro.
"Now while we were in Slovenia, we saw industrial robots that work on conveyor belts, have a large load capacity, precision and replace people in risky jobs, which is the most important thing. With that, we gained great knowledge in that field, but, unfortunately, it is unnecessary for our market, because we have nowhere to apply that knowledge, we have no factories. Wherever we appeared, we had offers to stay, but we are returning to Montenegro precisely with the desire to bring everything we see at various competitions with us. That's why we started with competitions for primary school students, but it's important to start as soon as possible, because robotics awakens logic", Čović points out, not hiding that this branch of science does not yet have the support of the ministries, but hopes that this will change soon.
"We are currently working on getting them to recognize us, and this competition will wake up elementary schools. The field of robotics exists in Mašinska, but the number of students there is small because they learn about robots, which we do not have here, and that is also the most painful point. That's why the focus is on elementary school where, in addition to robotics, they learn programming and team work. With the knowledge they acquire, they don't have to make only robots tomorrow, they can also make applications, websites, and everything started from robotics", concludes Aleksa.
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