13 Jan Making Robotics a National Movement in Kazakhstan

A seed was planted in the mind of Nurdaulet Dosmagambet as he listened to Dean Kamen’s speech at the inaugural 2017 FIRST Global Challenge in Washington, DC. He was inspired by Dean’s words to go back to his country of Kazakhstan and take on the responsibility of spreading this experience to many more youth, especially in rural areas.

Five years later, his organization hosted the largest-to-date national robotics competition in Kazakhstan. Supported by the Minister of Education and Science, they engaged more than 10,000 students across the country, including 3,000 girls. Twenty-two teams competed in the final championship, including a team of Uygher students who were the youngest in attendance and new to robotics, yet placed 5th.

“The most interesting thing for me is that we don’t usually get this many students at any competitions in Kazakhstan,” says student Zhantore, whose team won first place and moved on to represent their country in Geneva. “Robotics and these kinds of competitions are something I’m really passionate about, and being able to share this passion with so many new students that are from my own home country is a special feeling.”

Despite reaching such an impressive milestone, Nurdaulet is as committed as ever to expand their efforts and reach even more kids.

“We have put our best efforts to make FIRST Global more accessible to students in Kazakhstan and Central Asia,” he says. “We genuinely feel that the talented and gifted students are in the rural areas, especially because of their hunger for the knowledge, the new technology. If we could deliver the opportunities that FIRST Global gives to the students, I genuinely believe they could achieve far more, they could be really beneficial for the whole world.”

Over the past three years, they’ve worked alongside the Ministry to bring over 3,000 robotics classes countrywide, with over 2,000 teachers providing robotics courses to their students.

Kazakhstan isn’t the only country developing national competitions at this scale and furthering access to STEM and robotics curriculum. Other partners that have helped expand the impact of FIRST Global to tens of thousands of students this year include Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Denmark, Guatemala, Libya, Malaysia, Slovakia, Venezuela, and Vietnam.