From February 20 to 23, 2025, the «First Robotics Almaty Tech Cup 2025, Central Asia FIRST Championship & Drone Racing» competition in robotics was held at the «Atakent» complex in Almaty. The event was organized by our partners, the Republican Scientific and Practical Center «Daryn», in collaboration with the USTEM Foundation in Central Asia, with the support of the Ministry of Education of Kazakhstan.

The International Engineering and Technological University (METU) participated as an event partner, supporting talented students who demonstrated outstanding abilities in robotics and engineering technologies. As part of the competition, METU awarded six rector’s grants for university education to the most promising participants.

METU rector’s grant recipients:

• Arturuly Rustem
• Seitan Zhanasyl
• Beksultan Mukhamed
• Zhanat Elzat
• Zhanas Gauhar
• Erezhep Ernur

The competition brought together 2,800 school students from 12 countries, including Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, India, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and Morocco. The contest was held in four categories:

• FIRST LEGO League Discover (ages 4-6)
• FIRST LEGO League Explore (ages 6-10)
• FIRST LEGO League Challenge (ages 10-16)
• FIRST TECH Challenge (ages 12-18)

METU takes pride in supporting talented youth, fostering the development of engineering and technical skills, and helping future students turn their dreams into reality.

Author: Mussakyzy Zh.