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 A discipline that is gaining popularity

The last Bogotá International Industrial Fair (XXIV Feria Internacional Industrial de Bogotá) was the background of the First National Mechatronics Olympic Competition that was sponsored by Festo on October 4th and 5th in the German Exposition Pavilion.

This was the competition on a national level following the regulations of the WorldSkills Mechatronics Competition. After a first elimination phase with 40 teams from different industrial automation educational institutions and in which six regional representatives were pre-selected, a final phase followed at the Bogotá Fair. 

Through a MPS platform, the finalists from the Universidad Autónoma of the city of Bucaramanga, the Corporación Universitaria Tecnológica de Bolívar of Cartagena, the EAFIT of Medellín, the Centro de Automatización Industrial del SENA (main Colombian official technical and vocational school) of Manizales, the Universidad de Pamplona of Pamplona and the Universidad Autónoma of Bogotá, faced tests about assembly, error detection and system programming which not only assessed technical skills, but also personal attributes such as proactivity and team work capability in order to overcome real obstacles and bring effective solutions in front of an audience - possible potential customers - in a race against time. 

The students of the Centro de Automatización Industrial del SENA of Manizales were awarded first place - so they will part in the Mexican National Olympic Competition to take place in March 2003.

Moments like these reveal the emergence of an ingenious and brave young Colombia, of a willpower that Festo is channelling by holding this kind of competitions, and which deserved the media coverage, as well as the acknowledgement by important official education institutions like the SENA and international organisations such as the GTZ and the German Industry and Trade Chamber (IHK), whose representatives arrived to the Festo stand to back and to reward the students´ work.

The prize was actually given to all of us: In the olympic spirit which infected everyone on the stand, it was confirmed once again that the technological instruction in Colombia is improving competitiveness. We would like to thank all those educational institutions and individuals involved that helped us to make this initiative become a reality. May this be another opportunity to renew our commitment to keep on combining efforts leading to the WorldSkills Competitions in the near future, but most of all, to continue encouraging Colombian technological talent.