World Robot Olympiad Future Innovators Junior Open Championship Europe
Zagreb, Croatia
The Inventika Thunderbolts team, from the Inventika Place club in Bucharest, supported by the ARTESA Association, won 3rd place at the WRO Open Championship Europe 2026, in the Future Innovators Junior category, and received the Technical Solution Award, a distinction that recognizes the technical solution presented within the ArchaeoBot Explorer project. These are important awards for a competition in which children must not only have a good idea, but also demonstrate that they can turn it into a functional solution.
The competition, held from October 13–16, in Zagreb, Croatia, brought together teams from several countries, who came to present their projects and ideas to an international jury.
At Future Innovators, the challenge is not just to build a robot that works. You have to start from a real problem, find a solution, turn it into a project, and, at the end, be able to explain and support everything you've done. And between the first idea and the moment you get in front of the jury, there are many attempts, modifications, things that don't work, and solutions that you only reach after giving up on a few of the previous ones.
All this work is hard to see in a photo from the premiere. There you can see the children, the podium, the flags and the joy of the moment. But you can't see the hours spent in the workshop, the problems solved along the way or the emotions with which the team presented their project.
Supporting teams participating in national and international competitions is one of the important directions of ARTESA's activity. We know how much work it takes to prepare for such competitions, but we also know how much it means for children to have the opportunity to present their projects, meet other teams and exchange experiences with children from other countries.
We also know that an international participation cannot be organized with enthusiasm alone. Behind it are parents, coaches and sponsors who contribute time, resources and a lot of involvement. We thank everyone who supported the team's trip to Zagreb and made this experience possible.
Congratulations, Inventika Thunderbolts! Congratulations to the children for the result, to the coach for the preparation and to everyone who was with the team!
Together, we build a better world.