What Happened After Chicago?
Several months have already passed since the impressions from the prestigious international robotics competition, held this March in the great city of Chicago, settled in. Still, returning home for our team did not mean returning to a calm everyday routine. From the moment we arrived back in Croatia, we found ourselves in a true media whirlwind, and the period behind us was marked by numerous interviews, guest appearances, sharing our story with the public, and even a few more awards. Here is what that exciting journey looked like, from the competition hall in America all the way to television screens and newspaper pages.
When we arrived back in Rijeka, we realized that our adventure in Chicago had attracted a lot of attention. The first calls from journalists came while we were still unpacking our suitcases. Our first stop was Radio Rijeka, where we told our Chicago story for the first time. We also took part in an interview for the show Plus PGŽ on Kanal Ri. We talked about our journey, what the robot-building process looked like, how we raised the necessary funds, what the competition itself was like, and how we won that famous 3rd place. We also touched on the founding of our team, previous successes in other cities, and how someone can join our team.
In the following days, we also attended an event organized by our donor Infobip.
At the end of April, we were invited to a reception at Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. Deputy Prefect Toni Štimac and Head of the Administrative Department for Education Edita Stilin hosted us at the headquarters of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. We shared our impressions and received many compliments for our perseverance and resourcefulness. The County was, of course, of key importance to our journey because of their generous financial donations.
In addition to the visit with the Deputy Prefect and Head of Department, we also received an invitation from our mayor, Iva Rinčić. We had a pleasant conversation with her as well and received small tokens of appreciation in the form of gifts.
After many interviews, award ceremonies, and interesting shows where we talked about our adventure, our Crobi finally returned from America. However, the robot had been disassembled again for travel, so we decided not to put it back together. We did not have new replacement parts for the ones that were damaged during the competition, and our robot was also quite damaged after all the matches. We are leaving its reconstruction for next season, when we will once again prepare for the competition and get Crobi ready for a new challenge.
In mid-May, we did another radio interview, this time on Radio Roža.
At the end of the same month, we visited the Faculty of Engineering in Rijeka, where we held our presentation. All high school students were invited to the presentation and had the chance to see how robotics works and learn more about how they themselves can become part of projects like this. Our main goal was to show how work is done on a project of this level, what cooperation with a faculty looks like, and how to get started with robotics in the first place. We also demonstrated the robot’s capabilities, shared our experiences from Chicago, and answered all the questions asked by our peers.
One of the most beautiful moments that followed after numerous activities and presentations of our success was the Oskar znanja award ceremony, held on June 10 in the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb. The ceremony brought together the most successful students and their mentors from all over Croatia to receive recognition for outstanding achievements in national and international competitions. This award is given to first-place students in national competitions, as well as first-, second-, and third-place winners in international competitions. Having the opportunity to be part of such an event was a special experience and a great honor for the entire team.
The festive atmosphere, many successful young people, and the feeling of pride made this day unforgettable. Receiving the Oskar znanja was yet another confirmation of the effort, dedication, and teamwork that followed us throughout the entire season. Besides being a recognition of our achievements so far, this award is also additional motivation for future projects, competitions, and new challenges that await us.
This season brought us many new experiences, friendships, challenges, and memories that we will remember for a long time. None of this would have been possible without our donors and the support that enabled us to show our skills, knowledge, and hard work. Thank you to everyone who was part of our story and helped us achieve this success together. Although we have put robotics aside a bit over the past month to focus on school and catch up on everything we had missed, we are looking forward to the upcoming season and new challenges!
Your Crobotics team!