SINGAPORE – Palestinian student Razan Shawar travelled for 24 hours to showcase her team’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered invention at the World Robot Olympiad in Singapore, telling AFP that innovation – not war – should be why people hear about her country.
The 15-year-old high school student from Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank said she dreams of making “something big, so the world can know that the one who did this is Palestinian”.
Together with the rest of the Palestinian delegation, she made the journey from the West Bank via Jordan and Dubai to attend the three-day global robotic tournament in Singapore that ended on Nov 28.
More than 1,500 competitors from over 90 countries and territories gathered in the South-east Asian city for the event, aimed at harnessing the innovative spirit of the world’s youth to find solutions for pressing challenges.
Malaysia stamped its class in the tournament, winning a third of the contested medals in various categories, according to an AFP tally.
Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Canada and the Philippines were also among the first-place awardees.
For the Palestinian students, who left without a medal, it was important to represent their nation on the global stage.
Palestinian delegations have attended World Robot Olympiads since 2014, but the Israel-Hamas war meant they did not send any representatives to the 2023 edition in Panama, and since then, no participants from the Gaza Strip – only the West Bank.
