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Hobby groups from Kristiine Upper Secondary School, Kuressaare Upper Secondary School, Pärnu-Jaagupi Upper Secondary School, Liivalaia Upper Secondary School, Robootika.COM, Põltsamaa Upper Secondary School and Haanja School participated in the competition, while students from the Rahumäe Lower School’s Smartlab joined as visitors, writes LETA.

The Robootika.COM team won the First Lego League (FLL) competition for lower school students. FLL competition has three sections: building a robot, a research or a project and teamwork. The theme of this year’s competition was "Senior Solutions".

"One of the keys to our team's success was the fact that the team members worked on all three sections equally hard during their preparation for the contest," said Leivo Sepp, teacher at Robootika.COM.

Kristiine Upper Secondary School's team The Night Owls was also successful at the FLL North Estonian semifinals. But in the finals, they were defeated by a team with the winning name The Master. However, The Night Owls secured a place for the 2013 FLL national finals, which will be held in March next year.

This year's Robotex hosted FLL's North Estonian finals, South Estonian teams will compete in Tartu on December 1, 2012. The ten best from both semifinals will meet in the national final that will take place during next year’s spring break. The FLL National Champion will represent the country at the FLL European Championships.

The Smartlab project was initiated by the Vaata Maailma Foundation. The private funding is coming from EMT, Elion and Microsoft Estonia. The Smartlab project enables 500 students to develop their skills in robotics, design of mobile apps and websites, as well as programming. 36 Smartlab hobby groups have been set up in schools and youth centers across Estonia. The teaching is conducted in three languages – Estonian, Russian and Seto, and one group is also for children with hearing difficulties.