Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis welcomed the Israeli robotics team—students from the Megiddo Regional High School, who participated in the First Global Challenge robotics olympiad in Dubai—at the prime minister’s residence on Wednesday.
The FIRST robotics team, which operates under the aegis of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, won a silver medal at the competition that featured 191 teams, representing 191 countries.
The Israeli team reached the finals and won silver after finishing the preliminary stages with the highest points ranking. It also won a special prize for its assistance to other groups.
Netanyahu congratulated team members, who showed him their medal-winning robot, on their achievements in the competition.
“There are, of course, currents under the water that occur, and which occur, inter alia, because of this,” he continued. “You went there with robotics and technology, but the reason why the State of Israel has forged ties with many countries in the first place is because we have technologies and capabilities against a common enemy in both the security and civilian spheres. What you have done here is another step in this process, and it is not bad at all.”