American University of Sharjah to represent UAE in major space station robotics challenge

American University of Sharjah to represent UAE in major space station robotics challenge

The final will be in September, with the UAE team going up against teams from Japan, USA, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, among other countries

Published: Tue 8 Aug 2023, 6:13 PM

A team from the American University of Sharjah (AUS) will represent the UAE for the 4th Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC), organised by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and US space agency, Nasa.

The announcement of the UAE representative to the annual international robotics challenge was made extra special as this was done by UAE astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi, aboard the orbiting International Space Station (ISS), Dubai’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) said on Tuesday.

Kibo-RPC is an educational program in which students solve various problems by programming free-flying robots Astrobee and Int-Ball remotely inside ISS’s Japanese Experiment Module or Kibo. The aim is to “inspire students to develop their educational and professional goals to a higher level, as well as learn cutting-edge methodologies and hone their skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics."

The final will be in September and the UAE team will go up against teams from Japan, USA, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Bangladesh, and a team representing the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs.

Kibo, which means ‘hope’ in Japanese,