One of the largest events on technology in Ukraine got underway on June 3rd, in Dnipro. BestRoboFest 2017 is a festival of robotics and technology and includes robot design competitions, expositions of the latest in technology and the crowd favorite drone racing championships.BestRoboFest is an annual event organized by Association Noosphere, founded by Max Polyakov. 



Image credit: Noosphere Events via Instagram

Young engineers from every corner of Ukraine showed off their robot designs, throughout the two-day event. Competitions varied from fighting robots, to races and even a freestyle competition for robot designers to show off their creativity and technical prowess.  With more than 30 competition categories for all age groups. Max Polyakov ensured that there really was something for everyone.
 
The stands in the soccer field were filled by cheering fans for the main event. Human pilots took the field with their robot teammates to show their metal. The stadium field was the perfect place for the 25 teams to zip around the course and prove who deserved the trophy the most.
 
For participants who prefered to get their hands dirty, there was also a wide-variety workshops to participate in through the festival. Children and adults tried their hands at building robots, programming them using WeDo and Arduino chips and flying drones.
 
The cutting-edge exhibits at the Expozone showcased the latest from the Noosphere Engineering School. The automated artillery fire control system, ArtOS, showed off the recent advances in military technology that are keeping the country safe, and the MyPolice app demonstrated how anyone could help keep their cities safe by contacting the police directly through their smartphone with a single click.
 
Since Max Polyakov has always insisted that BestRoboFest should be focused on families, kids games were also available. Families spent the entire day taking in games, activities and food. For those who like to mix food and competition, there was even a burger-eating contest.
 
Live bands, local artists and dance schools played on the main stage throughout the event well into the evening to keep the energy level up.
 
The founder of Noosphere and the brainchild behind BestRoboFest, Max Polyakov, also spoke to the audience about the importance of the Maker Movement in Ukraine. He applauded the organizers of the free workshops in robotics, engineering and design that inspired so many young people at the event. He also expressed his excitement that so many more people had taken part this year over the previous one. Perhaps his most inspiring words were with regard to the youth who had attended and who he believes will be the future engineers and designers, leading the Ukrainian industry’s comeback in the near future.


  
Image credit: BestRoboFest via dnepr.online

State-of-the-art engineering was also put to work creating special blasts from the past. MonsterCarsUA was a special event where designers from all over Ukraine presented their unusual custom creations of pieces of art from pieces of metal. The collection of 17 monster trucks, steampunk bikes and post apocalyptic motorcycles competed for the prize pool of $9000 and bragging rights for the next year.
 
Audiences got involved in the voting as well in the people’s choice contest “Pimp My Ride.” The winner, Anatoly Eremeev, won a special grant from Max’s Polyakov Noosphere to complete a remodeling of a ZAZ-965 into a spooky vehicle similar to the truck in Jeepers Creepers. The whole process will be documented and presented, along with the finished product next year at MonsterCarsUA 2018.
 
With MonsterCarsUA almost stealing the show, fans were able to see the creativity of the future and the past in one place. The whole goal of the festival is to inspire people to get involved and provide them with the tools to do so. People of all ages saw new exciting exhibits and learned about the technologies that are shaping our world. Few events provide a better way to draw people into the exciting world of engineering and rocketry than Max Polyakov’s initiative - BestRoboFest.