Banco Atlántida continues to promote Honduran innovation by sponsoring World Robot Olympiad in Honduras

The financial institution ratifies its commitment to Honduran transformational innovation by propelling an education revolution in Honduras through robotics.

Tegucigalpa, February 26, 2019. - Banco Atlántida sponsored the launch of the Robotics Olympiad WRO Honduras - 3rd edition to create spaces and opportunities for children and young people to develop innovative talents, encourage experimentation, creativity, and approach to Robotics, which stimulates the technical, economic, and social development of the country. The WRO Olympiad is an annual robotic competition held in more than 70 countries that allows children and young people to develop their creativity, design, and problem-solving skills through challenging and educational challenges with robots through the technological tools offered by Robotics from LEGO Education™.

This year, WRO has a worldwide focus on "Smart Cities" since, according to the World Bank, more than 50% of the accelerated growth of the world population currently lives in urban areas. It is projected that by 2045, global urban population will increase by 1.5 times to reach 6,000 million inhabitants. When such a large number of people arrive, cities will need to improve their safety, transportation system, health, environment, among others and the most effective way to achieve it, is through technological tools and trained human capital.

Its launch and Open House were held on Tuesday, February 26th in Tegucigalpa organized by Honduras STEM Foundation, an NGO that seeks to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics by inspiring and developing fundamental skills in future professionals. The launch event counted with the participation of the Mexican expert, Luis Adolfo Guillot, CTO of Government Solutions for Huawei in Latin America, who highlighted the importance of STEM education to help make urban spaces “smarter”.

José Luis Moncada, Coordinator of the Honduras Digital Challenge and Advisor to Banco Atlántida´s CEO, announced, "Registration for the Honduras Digital Challenge is now open to all participants who wish to be part of this program that promotes the creation of successful technology companies in the region and particularly this year, it’s also open to orange industry companies. Indubitably, Banco Atlántida is pleased to support competitions and projects such as WRO® which are a greenhouse for future talent and entrepreneurs, that complement the objectives of the Honduras Digital Challenge.''

Among those invited to the launch figured representatives of the State Secretariat of Education and Quality (SEDUC), schools and universities directors, the media and sponsor representatives.

In 2019, more than 60,000 students from all over the world are preparing to qualify for the World Cup. The winning teams that meet the minimum score will travel on November 6, 2019 to the city of Gyor in Hungary with all expenses paid by the Honduras STEM Foundation.

The categories for WRO 2019 in Honduras are: Regular Junior (13 to 15 years old), Regular Senior (16 to 19 years old) and WRO soccer (10 to 19 years old). This event will be held at its official headquarters in Honduras, the Central American Technological University (UNITEC) in Tegucigalpa on August 23rd and 24th of this year.

All prospective participants can register now at www.wrohonduras.org.