On Tuesday, May 26th 2026, the Faculty of Engineering in Rijeka welcomed the Crobotics #7201 Team from Andrija Mohorovičić Gymnasium for a well-attended presentation during which team members gave a live demonstration of their award-winning robot and shared the extraordinary story of teamwork and perseverance that made it all possible.
The event was opened by Faculty`s Vice-Dean for Projects and Promotion, Assoc. Prof. Sunčana Smokvina Hanza, who spoke about the vital role of collaboration between secondary and higher education in developing young STEM talents. The team was joined by their long-standing mentors, teachers Patricija Nikolaus and Goran Boneta, who have guided the team since its very first days.
3rd place represents the highest achievement in Crobotics Team history, eclipsing their already impressive fifth-place finish in Istanbul three years ago. Yet what truly sets this result apart are the extraordinary circumstances surrounding it. The Rijeka students went up against teams backed by vastly larger budgets and the resources of major technology corporations and institutions, including NASA – and still came out on the podium. But the road to the podium, however, was anything but smooth.
“Our robot got held up at US customs right from the start. We had to kick off the competition using borrowed equipment, racing to reassemble our own robot in the final minutes before the matches began. And as if that wasn’t enough, a fire broke out at the school where we were staying“, the team members revealed.
During the presentation, attendees also had the chance to watch footage from the competition and see firsthand what the robot is capable of – an autonomous machine designed to collect and launch balls with precision. Faculty of Engineering played a key role in the robot’s development and technical preparation, a reflection of the Faculty’s broader commitment to support STEM excellence among young people well before they set foot in a lecture hall.
The Crobotics Team was founded in 2017 at the initiative of the gymnasium students themselves, under the mentorship of teachers Patricija Nikolaus and Goran Boneta. Since then, the team achieved impressive results at competitions and continued to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.
