As we mentioned in Part One, we had finalized our ultimate goal for our work in the United Arab Emirates: establishing an entire FIRST Robotics region where teams could compete locally, qualify for larger competitions, and inspire future generations of students. Thanks to our previous connections with UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba and program delivery partner Mr. Mohammed Mukhtar, we continued to work on our big plan for finding those interested in robotics. And finally, after nearly a month and a half, we had it all planned out.

Team UAE competing on the field

📢 FIRST Awareness Event

We had realized that before we could start teams, we first had to answer a much simpler question: how could we get students excited about robotics if many had never even heard of it? Then after weeks of planning and with the help of Unique World Robotics, we decided the solution to this issue was to remotely host a FIRST robotics awareness event in the UAE. With UWR's collection of simple, easy-to-assemble robots on hand, we created our own presentation videos that UWR would be able to play for everyone at the event to see.

These videos, along with posters and other marketing methods, were to be used to explain what exactly FIRST robotics was to the attendees while also being able to root out any interested individuals. We were looking for at least enough interested students and mentors to be able to create a handful of robotics teams — just enough so that they would have a good variety of other teams to compete against, and also enough to be considered as a region and be allowed further competitions at greater scales.

We had spent weeks planning every detail, but we remained unsure how the turnout would be — would anyone even show up? We weren't sure what to expect. Since robotics was still unfamiliar to many families, we weren't expecting too many people to check it out. UWR had planned to keep us updated constantly as the event ran on, but as more and more families walked through the doors, they soon became overwhelmed, quickly realizing this event was becoming much larger than imagined.

Building robots ahead of the event

By the end of the day, we received news that over 400 people had attended, with so many interested in robotics and so many willing to take part. Parents were standing all around the venue, eagerly listening to UWR or our pre-recorded videos explaining the basics of robotics. Many kids were walking around and fidgeting with the robots. Many were being instructed on how to drive them, or on which part of the robot did what. And many kids simply stood there, paying attention to all of the explanations they were hearing.

Hands-on work in the Unique World Robotics lab

Then, of course, there were the bored kids. An event with 400+ participants was bound to draw in some kids that wouldn't show any interest, but we had prepared for that beforehand. We had intentionally prepared a handful of interactive projects for moments like these, and we hoped that by the time they completed the projects, we would be able to garner some more engagement from these students. The obstacle course was the most anticipated activity by many of the students, and we wanted to focus on letting them work their way around the courses before being guided by us. That way, students felt more independent and confident in their future abilities to take part in robotics.

Getting hands-on with the game pieces

So many of these families had never even heard of robotics, so that certainly helped cause such a large turnout. We had originally hoped to gather enough interested students to create four or five teams. That alone would have been enough to begin building a competitive community. Instead, by the end of the event, we had enough interest to establish 17 FIRST Tech Challenge teams across the UAE. We were thrilled to have been able to host such a large event remotely, but even more thrilled to be able to start these teams and mentor them throughout the whole season's journey.

Assembling a robot in the lab

Comparing notes on the build

Working through wiring together

🌍 The Rest of the Journey

It has since been nearly a year since this whole process began. Throughout the whole Decode season journey, we had continued to mentor and train all 17 UAE teams that we formed. Since many of these teams were competing with each other, we had to stay away from some of the team-specific details of each opposing team when helping them, but we tried to help all of them evenly so that they would have a great first year and achieve great progress.

The team deep in a late build session

Testing the robot's mechanisms

We are also so proud to be able to say that one team was selected to the 2025 FIRST Global Challenge in Panama, a prestigious competition inviting teams from countries all over the world. Team UAE was able to claim the top prize, winning gold at this "Olympics of Robotics" event, while also marking the first time in 36 years that the UAE has claimed such a prize at a global robotics event.

The workshop where it all came together

One of the many builds along the way

And finally, we would like to leave you with the wise words of a certain program delivery partner and head coach, Mr. Mohammed Mukhtar:

This victory is a testament to the extraordinary dedication and ingenuity of our young innovators. They have made the nation proud and shown that UAE students can compete at the highest level on the global stage.

Letter of support from FIRST Tech Challenge