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Da Nang student wins silver medal at world's largest Robotics Olympiad

Translated by THƯ LÊ • Nov 04, 2025 10:17

DNO - The Vietnamese robotics team has won a silver medal at the FIRST Global Challenge 2025, one of the world’s largest international robotics competitions.

575128456_1130655565850871_3091952280195914327_n(1).jpg — Nguyen Nguyen Khoi (third from left) and members of Team Vietnam at the FIRST Global Challenge 2025 in Panama. Photo: Team Vietnam – FIRST Global.

This year’s event, themed “Eco Equilibrium", held from October 29 to November 1 in Panama.

It brought together teams from nearly 190 countries and territories from around the world to collaboratively innovate to maximize biodiversity and protect the incredible variety of life that sustains us all. From rainforests to coral reefs, the health of us and our planet depends on it!

After several intense rounds of competition, Team Vietnam claimed the silver medal, finishing behind Venezuela (gold) while host nation Panama earned bronze.

566348526_1122764626639965_7663454174212225684_n(1).jpg — Team Vietnam departs for the 2025 FIRST Global Challenge. Photo: Team Vietnam – FIRST Global.

The result marks one of Vietnam’s best performances at an international robotics tournament. The Vietnamese delegation included 10 high school students, with 5 selected to compete on-site in Panama.

The team’s project conveyed a message of environmental protection and sustainability, reflecting how technology can serve both innovation and global responsibility.

Among the participants was Nguyen Nguyen Khoi, a 12^th-grade student from Huynh Thuc Khang High School in Da Nang, who also serves as Vietnam’s Robotics Ambassador for Spring 2025.

nguyen-khoi(1).jpg — Nguyen Nguyen Khoi at the 2025 FIRST Global Challenge in Panama. Photo: Courtesy of Nguyen Khoi

Khoi previously won second prize at the National Science and Engineering Fair 2025 and first prize at the STEM Innovation for Smart City contest.

According to the team, robotics represents not just a technological challenge but also a bridge connecting science with the world’s core issues. Their design highlighted creative approaches to automation while promoting Vietnam’s rich natural diversity on the global stage.

The FIRST Global Challenge is an olympics-style, international robotics competition that takes place in a different country each year. FIRST Global invites each nation to send a team to build and program a robot to compete.

Teams work together to complete tasks in a game themed around one of the greatest challenges facing our planet, including the 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering, in an effort to foster understanding and cooperation among the youth of the world as they use their abilities to solve the world’s problems.

The challenges we face as a global society need to be solved, and the next generation can meet the task - together.