Category: WRO Series

In 2025, three Zebra Robotics teams travelled to Singapore City for the World Robot Olympiad Internationals — and together they delivered some of the most dramatic storylines in the program’s history.

Parallax — Nila Thiyagarajan, Shruti Nehete, and Suvali Mukherjee, all in Grades 9/10 had to fight for their spot from the start. After finishing second at the GTA Regionals, the team came from behind at Canada Nationals to beat competitors as old as Grade 12 and university-level, claiming first place and the trip to Singapore. Once there, the team hit an unexpected snag: a difference in wall height forced last-minute tweaks to their robotic arm, throwing off one of their most reliable missions. They sat below 50th position after Day 1 — but didn’t fold. On Day 2, Parallax fought back, completing several surprise challenges to climb into the top 40% overall. A young, resilient team with a future that looks very bright.

R&D — siblings Devanshi Sharma and Riyanshi Sharma — built a Future Innovators Senior project that turned heads all week: an AI-enabled assistive hand for cancer patients, sensor-equipped and genuinely novel. After winning first at Regionals and Nationals, the sisters arrived in Singapore as legitimate podium contenders, drawing a steady stream of judges to their booth. When final scores were announced, the result was almost unbearably close — they missed the podium by just 0.7 points out of 150, finishing 4th overall. A heartbreaking margin, but a project — and a sibling team — that made a real impression on the world stage.

Electrostatics — Rishy Grewal, Pranavkumar Redlapalli, and Akhil Thangamani — brought one of the event’s more inventive ideas to Future Innovators Junior: a reverse-magnetic vacuum robotic arm designed to clean lunar dust from moon rovers. The working prototype was an instant hit, and the team sat in the top 3 after Day 1. Then circumstance intervened — the entire team came down with the flu overnight, and a weakened Day 2 presentation cost them ground, dropping them to 7th place. Not the finish their project deserved, but a genuine testament to a team that still pushed through to the end.

A comeback story, a 0.7-point heartbreak, and a team derailed by bad timing rather than bad engineering — Singapore 2025 was proof that at the World Robot Olympiad, the margins are razor-thin, and resilience matters as much as the robot itself.

In 2025, two Zebra Robotics teams represented Canada at WRO Americas in Panama City, Panama — one delivering a standout rookie debut, the other gaining invaluable experience against far more seasoned competition.

Pink Boba Pearls — Swara and Sadhya, both in Grade 11 — competed in the Future Engineers category with BETI, a self-designed Raspberry Pi-based robot. For a rookie team, the result was exceptional: BETI carried the pair to a 4th-place overall finish at WRO Americas, representing Canada on a stage typically dominated by far more experienced competitors. A debut performance like that says a lot about both the engineering and the composure behind it.

Teddy and Berry — Sarvesh Sathish, Maria Jiffin, and Tea Isono, all in Grade 7 — qualified for WRO Americas in RoboSports after finishing 4th at Canada Nationals. In Panama, they found themselves competing directly against university-level students — a significant jump in experience and skill. The team didn’t qualify for the playoffs this time, but walked away with something just as valuable: a close-up look at what top-tier competition looks like, and a clear sense of the bar they’re now aiming for.

A rookie team finishing 4th overall, and a group of Grade 7 students testing themselves against university competitors — both stories capture what WRO Americas is really about: not just the results on the scoreboard, but the experience of competing, learning, and growing from it.

In 2024, Zebra Robotics sent its largest delegation yet to the World Robot Olympiad International Finals in Izmir, Türkiye — four teams, four categories, and a season’s worth of preparation put to the test on the world’s biggest robotics stage. Every team arrived having already won first place at both the GTA Regionals and Canada Nationals, and the results in Izmir reflected just how prepared they were.

Woodchucks — Nila Thiyagarajan, Riyanshi Sharma, and Shruti Nehete — competed in Future Innovators, Junior, with an AI-enabled robot designed to recognize and collect garbage on sidewalks. The judges took notice: their documentation and prototype were called near-perfect. The team carried that polish into the finals, closing out the competition in the top 20% globally.

Agribot — Zorez Gilani and Pranavkumar Redlapalli — brought a different kind of innovation to Future Innovators, Elementary: an agricultural robot that detects irregular ground levels in a field and levels it for microfarming. The project landed them in 5th place overall — a finish inside the top 8, prestigious enough to earn a mention at the WRO awards ceremony.

Miracle Monkeys — Vishnu Jeyakumar, Advik Bhagavatula, and Shlok Raval — ran a near-perfect Day 1 in Robo Mission Junior, putting themselves in strong position heading into Day 2. With the clock reading 5 seconds left on their final run — a run that had them on track for 7th place — the team triggered a program download that didn’t complete in time, forfeiting the run entirely. The team ultimately finished 23rd. It’s the kind of result that’s painful in the moment, but the kind of lesson — about timing, risk, and when to trust a result already in hand — that no classroom can teach quite the same way.

Alpha Nulls — Vedant Nehete and Devanshi Sharma — were nearly flawless from start to finish in Robo Mission Senior. A clean Day 1 set up an equally strong Day 2, and the team closed out the competition in 8th place overall — another finish inside the prestigious top 8, earning recognition on the awards stage.

From a top-8 finish to a five-second heartbreak, Izmir was a showcase of everything WRO is meant to test: not just engineering skill, but composure, timing, and the ability to perform when it matters most. Four teams, four different stories — and a Zebra Robotics delegation that left Türkiye with plenty to be proud of, and just as much to build on.

In 2024, two Zebra Robotics teams traveled to Puerto Rico to compete at WRO Americas, the regional championship bringing together top teams from across North, Central, and South America — and both delivered the kind of nail-biting, lead-trading performance that makes robotics competitions so compelling to watch.

AR24 — Anvi Gupta and Rajas Salunke — punched their ticket to Puerto Rico after finishing third at Canada Nationals. Once there, they came out firing: the team finished Day 1 in first place, putting themselves squarely in podium contention. Day 2 proved tougher, and the team ultimately settled into 4th place overall — a strong, competitive finish against a regional field stacked with talent.

Stunky Monkeys — Reyaansh Desai and Rishy Grewal — followed a near-identical path to get there, also qualifying for WRO Americas with a third-place finish at Nationals. Like their teammates, they led the field after Day 1. Their Day 2, though, came with a hard lesson: a single careless mistake cost them full points on a run that, by all accounts, would have been enough to push them to the top of the podium. They finished 4th overall — heartbreakingly close to where the scoreboard suggested they belonged.

Two teams, two nearly identical arcs — strong qualification, a Day 1 lead, and a Day 2 that didn’t go quite to plan. But finishing 4th at a regional final, twice over, is no small accomplishment. If anything, both results point to exactly the kind of teams Zebra Robotics is building: ones that compete to win, not just to participate.

In 2023, Zebra Robotics brought three teams to Panama City, Panama for the World Robot Olympiad Internationals — and the results ranged from a historic, country-first podium finish to hard-fought lessons that set the stage for next season.

The Oceanic Pioneers — Dave Grewal and Shourya Seth — competed in the Future Innovators category with a project tackling a real-world maritime problem: a magnetic robot capable of climbing a ship’s hull vertically to clean it while docked, cutting cleaning time enough to save up to 30% in fuel costs. The idea resonated at every level. The team took first place at both Regionals and Nationals, then went on to win the Silver Medal at the World Finals — marking the first ever podium finish for Canada at a WRO International event. Zebra Robotics is proud to have been the team that brought that milestone home.

The Energizerz — Christian Dal Dosso, Madhes Kamal, and Tej Shah — took on RoboSports, one of WRO’s most physically demanding categories, where robots compete head-to-head in real time. The team finished first at Canada Nationals to punch their ticket to Internationals, where they advanced all the way to the quarterfinals — going up against teams stacked with university-level competitors. For a team built entirely of Grade 9 students, reaching that stage of the bracket was a remarkable result, and a sign of real things to come.

Miracle Monkeys — Vishnu Jeyakumar, Advik Bhagavatula, and Shlok Raval — competed in Robo Mission Junior, bringing real consistency to the competition. They opened strong on Day 1, finishing in the top 30, then came back on Day 2 to complete more than half the mission, closing out the event in the top 40% overall. For a young team, it was a result packed with lessons — and a clear sense of unfinished business heading into next season.

A historic podium finish, a deep playoff run against older competitors, and a strong learning experience — together, the three teams captured exactly what Zebra Robotics aims for at every WRO: ambitious ideas, real engineering, and the drive to keep improving.