Wednesday 29 / October / 2025
Panama City: The Sultanate of Oman, represented by the Ministry of Education, is participating in the FIRST Global Challenge 2025, held in Panama City, Republic of Panama. The competition, which runs until 1 November, sees participation from over 190 countries worldwide.
Oman is represented by a national team comprising three students who qualified for the international event from schools in A’Dakhiliyah Governorate.
The team members are Ziyad Zakariya Al Ismaili from Sheikh Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Kindi School, Al Khalil Ahmed Al Aufi from Bilarab bin Sultan School, and Al Khalil Ibrahim Al Kindi from Abi Obaidah School.
The team is supervised by Ibrahim Eid Al Balushi from the Department of Innovation and Scientific Olympiad at the Ministry and led by trainer Ahmed Saif Al Aufi from the Innovation and Scientific Olympiad Section at the Directorate General of Education in Al Dakhiliyah.
The national team worked continuously for two months to study and analyse the details of this year’s competition challenge, developing innovative performance strategies to execute the required tasks with the highest levels of efficiency and accuracy.
This included designing, building, and programming the robot according to an integrated technical plan developed by the team members, utilising their expertise in programming and control.
This participation is part of the Ministry of Education’s efforts to embed a culture of innovation in education and develop students’ skills in the fields of science, engineering, and artificial intelligence.
This aligns with the objectives of “Oman Vision 2040” to prepare a generation of innovators who can contribute to building a knowledge-based economy founded on innovation and technology.
This year’s competition focuses on protecting biodiversity. Student teams from various countries are competing to design robots that compete in an arena simulating the preservation of natural systems that support the health of humans and the planet.
Through this, they aim to raise awareness among youth about the importance of ecological diversity.
This competition is one of the most prominent international contests in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
It is an annual global platform, similar to the Olympics, held in a different country each year. This initiative is part of global efforts to highlight the role of science and technology in addressing major environmental and developmental challenges.
The competition aims to empower students to utilize their scientific and innovative capabilities to build robots capable of performing engineering tasks that simulate contemporary global challenges. It seeks to promote understanding and cooperation among the world’s youth and inspire the rising generation to address planetary issues through innovative scientific and technological solutions.
FIRST Global emphasizes the importance of making science and technology an exciting and motivating field for young people worldwide. This contributes to inspiring two billion young people around the world to choose academic and career paths in STEM fields, preparing them to become future leaders capable of finding innovative solutions to the challenges facing our planet.
