Young robotics boffin from Stainforth joins Robonauts team for Rolls Royce visit

Earlier this year the seven year-old helped to win the WER (World Educational Robotics) competition and together with his team, ROBONAUTS, will represent the UK in Shanghai on December 14.

Robert’s mum, Ioana Zicman, said her son and the rest of the team had been “incredibly busy since” including a visit to the Rolls Royce factory and free lessons in Chinese.

She added: “The Confucious Institute at the University of Sheffield has been providing them with free lessons so they can learn about Chinese culture and language. They’ve also been keeping up with competition practise, having qualified for the European Open Championships in July as Robby scored an incredible 100 percent in the trials.”

On top of this, Team Robonauts visited Rolls-Royce. Paul Broadhead, Global head of Community Investment and Education Outreach, amazed the team during the visit. They got up close to engines that power everything from ships to planes.

They also assembled a small replica of a jet engine, learned how it worked, used a VR headset to control a virtual engine as well as see what it takes to power a 1000mph car.

Also, there was a tour of the workshops and the boys got front row views of all the activities that were happening.

Ioana further added: “It was a truly awesome time, and we cannot thank Paul and his wonderful team enough for how welcome they made us feel.” To help sponsor the team visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/send-child-robotics-wizards-to-china-contest-?