A national qualifying event for the World Youth Robot Championship will be held in Busan next year.
However, the Busan City Education Office has not set any expected participation scale or goals as registration began, and it appears that the department has not specifically tracked last year's participation data or the performance of Busan students in related events.
The Busan City Education Office announced that it will host the '2027 Robot National Qualifiers' on November 28 at the Busan Port International Exhibition and Convention Center (BPEX).
This competition serves as the official qualifier for the '2027 Robofest World Championship,' which will take place in Korea next year, and is open for free participation to elementary, middle, and high school students nationwide. The top team in each category will receive a ticket to the world championship and more than three sessions of tailored consulting.
Robofest is an international youth robot competition that began in 1999 at Lawrence Technological University in the United States. According to the Busan Education Office, over 38,700 students from 39 countries have participated to date.
The world championship in Korea will be the first to be held outside the United States.
The event in Busan is a national qualifier, not the world championship itself. An official from the education office explained, “We are hosting a domestic competition to qualify for the world championship,” emphasizing that the operations of the world championship and the national qualifiers are separate.
Registration is open from September 1 to October 16. The junior division includes students from fifth grade to second year of middle school, while the senior division includes students from third year of middle school to second year of high school. Competing teams will participate in eight categories, including Game, Exhibition, and Unknown Mission Challenge (UMC).
The issue lies in the expected participation scale. Although the education office is overseeing the official qualifiers for students nationwide, it has not set any expected number of teams or students by the first day of registration, nor has it established a separate target participation scale.
When asked about the expected participation scale, an official stated, “We started registration on the 1st, so we cannot know at this point,” adding, “There is no set target.” The official further explained, “Since there are multiple categories, we will assess the level of support for each category and make adjustments after October 16.”
The department was also unable to provide immediate data on past competitions. When asked about last year's domestic competition participation, the official replied, “We did not oversee it last year, so we do not have that information.”
Regarding the performance of Korean students in the world championship, the official stated, “We are not well-informed about the data related to the world championship.” As for the past participation records of Busan students, the official mentioned, “There may be data, but we are not aware of it,” explaining that such information is managed separately.
No specific measures have yet been proposed to address regional disparities in participation. In response to questions about varying conditions for students in rural areas, the education office stated that it has sent competition information to all city and provincial education offices and will assess the registration situation before making any judgments.
An official from the education office remarked, “We have informed all city and provincial education superintendents,” adding, “We will need to evaluate the situation based on the registration we receive.”
As this is a national qualifier for a ticket to the world championship, the future adjustments in operations based on registration trends, along with the enhancement of foundational data regarding past competition scales and student demand, remain challenges ahead.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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