Gilmore Gigabytes off to 2022 Russian Open Championship after winning championship at Curtin University

Students from a local school will be taking their talents to the other side of the world to compete against students from more than 60 countries after winning a robot design competition. The Gilmore College robotics team have been invited to travel to Russia after claiming first place in the robot design category of the FIRST Lego League WA National District Championships at Curtin University last weekend. Students Sebastian Maddigan, Ryan Rees, Declan Bothma-Combley, Yaroslav Kniaziev and Kuirt Doromal from the Gilmore Gigabytes are the only team from the State to win a place at the 2022 Russian Open Championship. They qualified in the top 10 teams going into the national competition and impressed league judges across all four categories — project innovation, robot design, core values, and robot games. Year 9 student Declan said the team used Python codes to program their robot — a high-level programming language they had mostly taught themselves. “We wrote about 400 lines of code,” he said. The team said they were surprised by their win, but once the shock passed they were excited and proud of themselves. Gilmore College principal Dean Gurr said he was immensely proud of the team and their teacher, German Panopio. “I always believed in their ability to do well, but to see them achieve so much was so gratifying,” he said. “Each of these students is unassuming and just get on with the job, and what a job they have done. “These young adults have learnt how to co-operate as a team and how to be gracious in competition. “They have learnt to appreciate each other and how to use their individual talents to contribute to the whole team.” The Gilmore Gigabytes met every day in the four weeks leading up to the championship and are already planning for the international competition in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, in June. The Russian competition will be attended by 3000 students, making up 140 teams.