Prime Minister Pivić rewarded young roboticists with 1,500 KM each for second place in Europe

(Patria) - Prime Minister of Zenica-Doboj Canton Nezir Pivić hosted a reception for young roboticists from Zenica, who participated in the Open European Robotics Championship, held from September 2nd to 5th in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

In a competition of 45 countries and 842 participants, the STEM Academy team from Zenica, consisting of Zlatan Bešlagić, Dušan Maleš, and Iman Huseinspahić, won a silver medal and second place overall.

The team consisting of Harun Dizdar, Ajnur Skender, and Davud Kubat had a notable performance in the Elementary category.

- You are, first and foremost, the pride of your families, and then the pride of the country and all of us, because we can witness that we truly have the smartest children and youth in the world, and we also have the most beautiful country. It is important that we are united, that we work on good projects, and that we support each other in the future. We will support such things, projects, ideas, and talented young people – stated Prime Minister Nezir Pivić.

Kenan Varda, national organizer of the World Robot Olympiad, emphasized that this success is the result of effort and work at the STEAM Academy in Zenica.

- It should be known that 20% of the participating countries at the Open European Championship were from the rest of the world, that the first place was won by a guest team from Malaysia, so our team is effectively the best in Europe in robotics this year. This is a strong motivation to expand this story in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is especially important to us that this is happening in Zenica, in the Zenica-Doboj Canton, where we have created a core of young people whom we will develop in the future – said Varda.

In addition to the competitors and the national organizer of the World Robot Olympiad, the reception with the Prime Minister was also attended by professors Ernad Bešlagić and Malik Čabaravdić, and assistant educator Semina Hodžić.

The University of Zenica is the organizer of the national competition, and after that, it leads the teams that qualify for European and world competitions.

- We do not have systemic funding. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Prime Minister Nezir Pivić, who has helped us for the third year in a row to cover part of the travel costs, which are quite expensive as we traveled to Panama, Germany (Dortmund), and now to Slovenia (Ljubljana). This is extremely important to us, and we hope that the support will be even greater in the coming years – said Kenan Varda.

Prime Minister Nezir Pivić rewarded six young competitors with 1,500 KM each for their achievement.