Two teams of the Cambridge Electronics and Robotics Club (CERC ) will represent Great Britain in the World Robot Olympiad 2026 (WRO) International Finals following a string of impressive results at the UK National Finals.
Robot Mission Elementary Team, which is made up of Katy, Tala and Alex, showed great technical knowledge, stability and cooperation to take second place with a total of 125 points.
World Robot Olympiad
The team was also awarded a prize for their professional behaviour and cooperation during the whole competition. The success has qualified them to participate in the International World Robot Olympiad in Puerto Rico or in one of the Open World Robot Olympiads in Croatia, San Francisco, or India.
In the Future Innovators Junior category, Johan and Niel from Trumpington Community College were named UK champions with their project, Vision2Touch.
The project converts sign language into Braille to improve communication between the two. The judges were impressed by both originality and the potential social impact of the project.
The project won first place in the junior category as well as getting the highest overall score of all Future Innovators teams who participated in the finals, regardless of the age of the participants.
World Robot Olympiad
They also won the Best Presentation Award for the quality of their live demonstration. As the champions of the category, Johan and Niel will be representing the UK at the International World Robot Olympiad in Puerto Rico this December, along with the teams from more than 90 other countries.
The World Robot Olympiad is a global robotics competition that inspires young people to develop their skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Through exciting robotics challenges, students learn to think creatively, solve complex problems and work effectively as part of a team. Every year, more than 32,000 teams, representing around 175,000 young people from more than 100 countries, take part in WRO competitions, making it one of the world’s largest and most prestigious robotics events.
This year’s UK National Finals at The Dock, Leicester, featured several guests, including Liz Kendall, Michael Kapur, Teresa Aldred, and Professor Mark Schäfer.
World Robot Olympiad
A CERC spokesperson said: “It is yet another success of the CERC’s STEM programme that continues providing award-winning teams due to their technical skills, creativity and problem-solving abilities. CERC congratulated its students on their success after many months of hard work and thanked parents, coaches and volunteers for their contribution. CERC expressed gratitude to STEMpura, the organisers of the competition, for the event that inspires future engineers and innovators.
“With national victories won and international qualification secured, CERC students will start preparing for their next step in their development that will take Cambridge and the UK onto the international robotics scene this year.”