World Robot Olympiad™

A non-profit Organization

World Robot Olympiad Association™ is an independent non-profit organization. All revenue from sponsorships and fees is invested in support of our mission, which is to promote robotics in STEM education worldwide.

WRO® operates on, is measured on and strives towards the following Values:

Diversity

WRO is accessible to young people from around the world, regardless of background

Teamwork

Our teams succeed by embracing collaboration and build friendships, integrity and character in the process

Passion

Learning occurs naturally when participants are in flow and having fun when engaged in our activities

Innovation

Our programs are innovative and hands-on, based around trending topics and technologies

Empowerment

We inspire and prepare young people to be digital pioneers, innovators and engineers

2021 Annual Report

In 2021 our member countries were committed to keep the WRO spirit alive in their community. We decided early in the year that all these efforts deserved  an official WRO® International Final, and because we knew we could not invite teams we hosted it online. We also took the opportunity to do a well deserved complete make over of our WRO competitions and we added a brand new RoboSports category!
Read our 2021 annual report to find more.

Board of Directors

All financial and strategic decisions for WRO® are made by our Board of Directors.
The Board of Directors members are:

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Mr Lars Vahl
– Chairman –
bio

Claus 4 5

Mr Claus Ditlev Christensen
– Secretary General –
bio

Mr Eugene Zhang
bio

Mr Johnson Jan
bio

Mr Yasuhide Kobayashi
bio

Mr Clarence Sirisena
bio

Mr Jonathan Hung
bio

Advisory Council

The WRO® Advisory Council (AC) members bring us important strategic knowledge that helps us keep up with a constantly changing world.

The AC members are:

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Mr Brent Hutcheson, South Africa
– Chairman –
bio

Dr Marcelo Ang, Singapore
Mr Kerry Bailey, Australia
Ms Fatma Bezek, Turkey
Mr Dominic Bruneau, Canada
Ms Nualwon Cha-ume, Thailand

Dr Feng-Kuang Chiang, China
Mr Claus Ditlev Christensen, Denmark
Mr Mark Hosking, South Africa
Mr Erik Kapfer, Slovenia
Mr Michael Renvillard, Denmark

Ms Birthe Ritter, Denmark
Ms Alejandra Sanchez, Costa Rica
Mr  Cales Soler, Spain
Dr Kai-Tai Song, Chinese Taipei
Mr Zoltan Szögi, Hungary

Staff

Our dedicated WRO® staff manages the operation of our diverse and exciting organization. From helping National Organizers and collaborating with partners to develop WRO further, to managing spreadsheets and sharing our stories with the world. No stone is left unturned when it comes to fulfilling our mission and they do their best to ensure that WRO is constantly improving while also becoming accessible to more students across the world.

Our team consists of:

Claus

Mr Claus Ditlev Christensen

Karen

Ms Karen Bebelaar

Markus

Mr Markus Fleige

National Organizers

WRO® competitions in our member countries are hosted by National Organizers. They take on the responsibility for organizing local and regional competitions as well as national finals. Without our National Organizers, World Robot OlympiadTM would not exist.

WRO Foundation

The World Robot Olympiad Foundation Inc. is a 501c3 USA non-profit organization. It was founded to support WRO® Association to encourage as many young people as possible to join in the WRO activities both in the United States and worldwide.

The history of WRO®

Growth and development

World Robot Olympiad™ was founded in 2004. The mission statement of our founders was:
“To bring together young people all over the world to develop their creativity, design and problem-solving skills through challenging and educational robot competitions and activities.”

It was decided that the annual WRO international final would be hosted by a different country each year. In 2004, the event was hosted by Singapore and 12 countries participated. In 2019, fifteen years later, teams from 73 countries travelled to Győr in Hungary for the international final!

Today, the competition that started small in a few Asian countries has expanded to over 85 countries spread over all continents, making WRO a truly global event.

Since 2010 World Robot Olympiad Association Ltd. is officially registered as a legal entity with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) in Singapore.

You can find a list of all former hosts of international finals here.

Number of participating teams

Number of member countries

Data about 2020 & 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic hit all of our member countries. Because of this we have no meaningful international data about participating teams in 2020 and 2021.

Numbers 2022

From the start in 2004 WRO® has grown fast, including more countries and more children and young people each year. The Covid pandemic made it very hard for countries to organize events in 2020 and 2021. But in 2022 we have seen the number of teams participating in WRO growing again.

world robot olympiad student

38,500+

students involved

world robot olympiad clock

the tournament has been running since

2004

world robot olympiad judge

countries that judges at International Final came from

41

world robot olympiad world

85+

countries have joined WRO

world robot olympiad teams

number of involved teams

14,300+

world robot olympiad age

8 – 19

age of participants

world robot olympiad final

2,250+

people attended the International Final

world robot olympiad adults

number of adult helpers involved in WRO

17,500+