Student Innovators advance their robotic projects at World Robot Olympiad Entrepreneur Program from competition to startup stage

Hyderabad, India – September 29, 2026 – Twenty teams from 13 countries pitched their robotics ideas to entrepreneurs, investors, and industry leaders at the World Robot Olympiad™ (WRO®) STEM Entrepreneur Program. The competition allows teams to experience what they might face if launching a real startup. Four teams from 13 countries received project funding and six-month mentoring after impressing the judges with both technical quality and their ability to communicate why their ideas have commercial potential in solving real-world challenges.

The WRO STEM Entrepreneur Program, powered by Aramco, is a new initiative to bridge the gap between STEM education and entrepreneurship by giving students the opportunity to defend how their technologies work, why they matter, and how they would take their solutions from the competition arena to the market.

The winning teams were recognized for combining technical innovation with entrepreneurship – balancing engineering, communication, and commercial thinking while addressing a real-world challenge through their projects.

Winners

• Project CARED, Philippines – An integrated patient-monitoring system designed to automate routine measurements and reduce repetitive work for nurses.
• Mini-Ibot Innovators, Italy – A tactile art tablet that enables blind and visually impaired people to create and experience art through touch and sound.
• Navrachana Vidyani, India – A robotic firefighting system designed to detect and respond to fires while reducing the need for people to enter hazardous environments.
• Why Combinator, South Korea – A sensor-glove system designed to turn everyday human interactions into training data for robots and Physical AI.

Each team will receive a $5,000 award, along with six months of mentoring from industry experts, including investment professionals from Aramco Ventures and the India STEM Foundation, to help further develop their projects.

Hadeel Al-Eisa, Aramco Corporate Citizenship Manager, said: ”At Aramco, we believe the future lies in empowering young people. Our STEM Education Global Program enables students to understand science and technology and use it to create, build, and solve. Our strategic partnership with WRO continues to expand, allowing students to take their ideas outside of the classroom, from ideation and prototyping to execution and growth.”

Claus Ditlev Christensen, Secretary General of the World Robot Olympiad Association, said: “Today’s winners stood out, but they also represent something bigger. WRO competitions help young people develop technical and problem-solving skills. This program builds on that foundation by giving them first-hand experience of how innovation works beyond the competition arena.”

The judging panel included investment professionals from Aramco Ventures, a representative from South African impact fund Kai Connect, and a representative from the India STEM Foundation, the National Organizer of WRO in India. These experts provided students with direct, market-focused feedback on their new ideas.

After the inaugural competition in Hyderabad, the next step is to bring the program format to National Organizers around the world, giving more students the opportunity to present their ideas to industry.

About the WRO STEM Entrepreneur Program

The WRO STEM Entrepreneur Program is a new program launched for the first time as a result of a strategic partnership between Aramco and WRO. It combines robotics, innovation, and entrepreneurship by challenging student teams to present both the technical and practical value of their solutions to a panel of industry professionals. The international event took place in Hyderabad, India, on September 28, 2026. It brought together twenty teams from Ghana, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, and Uganda.

About the World Robot Olympiad Association

World Robot Olympiad™ Association (WRO®) is a global non-profit that engages over 175,000 young people across more than 100 countries through hands-on robotics challenges. The competition helps students develop creative problem-solving skills while fostering international collaboration and STEM leadership. Learn more: wro-association.org

Media Contact

For media enquiries regarding this release, please contact press@wro-association.org

Link to photos.

WRO® is a registered trademark of the World Robot Olympiad Association.

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