Penza, 12 January 2015. PenzaNews. The first regional festival “Sura ROBO-park” was held at the Olimpiysky sports palace in Penza city during the weekend of January 10-11. It attracted school, university and college students, as well as robotics teachers.

The event began with a presentation of “Robotech 1.0” equipment packages made under “NEL” (“NanoElectroLab”) brand, experimental education tools for classed 5+, and other creations made with direct support and supervision of “NanoElectroLab” youth innovation center members and residents.

The festival also hosted demo areas of retailers of educational robotics hardware, and workshops on continuous robotics education from kindergarten to university.

Among the honored guests of the event was Maxim Vasilyev, president of the Russian Educational Robotics Association.

“The Penza region very actively develops in educational robotics field, and this festival shows it,” he noted.

In his turn, the Penza region governor Vasily Bochkarev stressed the importance of robotics that teaches creative thinking from one’s very childhood.

“We must start these innovative projects as soon as possible, so we are planning to implement it in kindergartens this year. We are currently seeking to cooperate with Pakistan, South Korea, China and our technology park to procure details for robotics,” he explained.

During the festival, the governor awarded the winners of the 3rd regional robotics competition. The first prize was a laptop, the second – a tablet PC, and the third – a robotics construction set.

The event was followed by qualification matches in Russian “Hello, Robot!” classes and limitations, along with regional international First Lego Liga 2015 World Class matches. The winners of these events will have a chance to enter Russian-wide competitions.

According to the press service of the Ministry of Education of the Penza region, the festival also featured showcase matches in Robot Battle, Pin Wrestling, Line Racing and RC Robot Race classes.