Nicosia technical school team heads to Houston for world championships

The Cyprus Computer Society (CCS) on Friday announced that it recently held the FIRST® LEGO® League Cyprus 2026, bringing together hundreds of students from across Cyprus for a major robotics event held at European University Cyprus.

The event, titled UNEARTHED™ and held on March 21, focused on archaeology and attracted an impressively high number of participants from public and private schools, training centres and kindergartens across the island.

“Today’s archaeologists of the future will uncover valuable secrets of the past through the power of robotics, research, and innovation,” said Andreas Efstathiou, European University Cyprus rector and Research and Innovation Foundation board member.

The foundation supported international participation for the event, reinforcing Cyprus’ presence in global robotics competitions.

“Participation interest was significantly increased this year,” said Andreas Loutsios, President of the Cyprus Computer Society.

The society reported that nearly 400 students from kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, lyceums and technical schools took part in activities scheduled across different time slots throughout the day.

The FIRST® LEGO® League, recognised as the world’s largest educational robotics competition, featured three programmes tailored to different age groups, including FLL Discover for ages 4 to 6, FLL Explore for ages 6 to 10 and FLL Challenge for ages 9 to 16.

The winning teams in the FLL Challenge category secured the opportunity to represent Cyprus at international competitions in the United States, Australia and Greece, with support from the Research and Innovation Foundation.

Team RobotHeadz from C.S. STEM Education Cyprus, coached by Periklis Cheng, won the Champion’s Award, Core Values Award and Robot Design Award.

The team will represent Cyprus at the FIRST® LEGO® League Asia Pacific Open Invitational in Australia, taking place from July 9 to July 12, 2026.

Team Robomak from Makarios III Technical School in Nicosia, coached by Panayiotis Englezakis, received the Robot Performance Award.

The team will participate in the FIRST® Championship in Houston, United States, scheduled from April 29 to May 2, 2026.

Team PolemiRaiders from Polemi Gymnasium-Lyceum, coached by Georgios Kyprianou, was awarded the Innovation Project Award.

The team will compete at the FIRST® LEGO® League International Open in Corinth, Greece, from May 8 to May 11, 2026.

The Motivation Award was presented to Team Hephaestus Sparks from Candela Robotic School, coached by Mustafa Kemal Ambar.

The event was organised by the Cyprus Computer Society in collaboration with Eduact and IET Cyprus, under the auspices of the Education Ministry.

It was hosted by European University Cyprus, with XM serving as Tech Partner and additional support provided by Amdocs.

Parallel activities focusing on terrestrial and underwater archaeology were delivered by the Department of Antiquities under the Deputy Ministry of Culture, the Cyprus Institute, the CVAR Museum and the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI).