Addressing the opening ceremony, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto stressed that the students’ talent, creativity and renovation spirit will contribute to the social development and put forth solutions to current global issues.

The contest, themed “Energy Impact”, draws the participation of 165 teams across the world.

Three teams will form a group by drawing lots to compete with other groups. Different teams will work together each round. A team will take part in eight matches in total.

The Vietnamese team consists of four students of the FPT High School. Head of the team Le Ngoc Tuan said two months prior to the competition, each team received a kit containing circuit boards, screws and wheels to design and assemble its own robot. The Vietnamese team’s robot design and features won praise from the host committee, he said.

A group of Vietnam, Azerbaijan and Slovakia suffered a narrow defeat by their rivals from Switzerland, Paraguay and Cote d’Ivoire in the first match due to lack of collaboration. 

Afterward, the Vietnamese students along with their peers from Moldova and Mauritius won a landslide victory against their rivals from Belgium, Guatemala and Papua New Guinea. 

The group of Vietnam was ranked third in the overall rankings after the second match of the first competition day.

FIRST Global Challenge is a non-profit organisation which aims to inspire science and technology leadership and innovation in young people from all nations in order to increase understanding.-VNA