ORF runs ‘Cairobotics’ in Egypt
Olympia Robotics Federation Inspires Egyptian Students
On August 19, 2022, on a partially-cloudy afternoon in Seattle, ORF-4450 boarded their first flight en route to Cairo, Egypt. There would be no clouds under a sweltering late-summer Egyptian sun. Their flight landed late on Sunday night, and the jet-lagged and tired students of the Olympia Robotics Federation woke up at 6 am the next morning to begin Camp Cairobotics.
The story of this trip begins over the summer of 2021, when Brenda Diettrich, the Lead Mentor of the Olympia Robotics Federation, traveled on vacation to Egypt. Over the course of her voyage, she became very close with her tour guide, Samar. Samar’s son wanted to pursue robotics, so his mother’s friendship with Brenda was quite the stroke of luck. Using an Amazon grant, ORF established an FLL (Lego-based robotics) team in Egypt which he (and other Egyptian children) joined in order to kick off a future in robotics. This team, called Egy Robo, was mentored over Zoom by ORF. But after a successful season of competition, they wanted more. The next level of robotics would be FTC (metal robotics, each robot approximately the size of a microwave), but no such thing existed in Egypt. With no predecessor team, they would have no materials nor experience to start an FTC program. They needed a robotics team with knowledge who could come to Egypt and teach them robotics, along with the core values of FIRST. And thus, the concept of Cairobotics was born.
ORF team members and parents had to raise $65,000 in three months to travel to Egypt with 17 students, 3 mentors, and 5 parent chaperones. This included the cost of supplying five Rev Robotics kits and a playing field. This was accomplished through several events, including crowdfunding (Mighty Cause), an online auction, a student-run food booth at Lake Fair, and a campaign to alert friends and family in the community to this opportunity.
Admittedly, Camp “Cairo” bots was not in Cairo, but in New Cairo, where the 17 American student -” teachers”, along with their entourage of adults, would teach 20+ Egyptian students in a small (originally residential) apartment. The “camp” was officially a part of Nutty Scientist, a small STEM academy in Cairo, partnered with the international math-and-science-based group Stemzone. ORF had spent the three months preceding the trip not only fundraising but also creating presentations and activities for their students. It became apparent mere hours before Cairobotics kicked off that much of their hard work was not suited for the conditions of the camp’s small space. Yet, ORF demonstrated great improvisation and flexibility on that first day, creating a great starting experience for their students. And after the first day of camp, the ORF students went back to their hotel to work on revamping the robotics lessons and the Nutty Scientists students of Cairobotics spread the word about the Robotics camp.
As the week progressed, increasing numbers of students joined camp Cairobotics (originally 10 students), largely fueled by their parents and other adults filming/live-streaming the camp and sharing it on social media. ORF Coach, Brenda, later learned that many of the Egyptian staff were shocked by the sight of high school students teaching younger students, a first experience for them. The camp space became more and more crowded day by day, and by the final day of camp, the number of students had more than doubled!
Egyption student proudly displays her groups robot
At the Cairobotics camp, the students were divided into teams and spent four and a half full days of camp building and programming their own FTC robot with the materials donated by ORF and its feeder FTC teams in Olympia. There were usually 2 ORF members and about 4 Cairobotics students per team. On top of building their own robots, campers developed their own chants and mottos which they screamed and shouted during an absolutely riveting competition on the final day of the Cairobots camp. The teams competed in a tournament followed by an exciting championship match. The competition concluded with an awards ceremony. Fortuitously, every team won an award, and the day ended with a great celebration complete with pictures, cake, and of course, robots. That day ended with a teary goodbye and exchanging contact information, the American and Egyptian students parted ways with the satisfaction of completing an extraordinarily successful event. ORF students had given the Egyptian students the materials and know-how of robotics and friendships on another continent and the thirst for more knowledge which triggered the whispers for perhaps a second ORF expedition back to the nation…