Robotics event shines light on Iranian girls' tech ambitions

In a hall adorned with Quranic verses and usually reserved for prayers, Iranian teenage girls watched the robots they designed play football, at an event showcasing sanction-hit Iran's aspirations in emerging tech.

Only months ago, the Grand Mosalla religious complex hosted the funeral of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes at the start of the Middle East war.

Iran's economy had already been weakened by decades of international sanctions that have hampered the country's development, and the war has further isolated the Islamic republic.

Despite the odds, some want the country to play a bigger role in technology, and at this week's RoboCup event in Tehran, participants were as young as 10 years old.

It also pitted teams of girls against boys, in a country that prohibits coeducation in schools.

"My ambition is to study robotics at university and to take part in international competitions," 15-year-old Elina Rezvanian told AFP.

She knows how to code, and together with four other female classmates spent two years working on the design of the robots for the event.

As the crowd watched electrified, Rezvanian and her teammates stood around a table that served as the mini football pitch, their eyes glued on the four-wheel machines facing off around a tiny ball.

Their robots had to prove themselves on the field over two 10-minute halves, refereed by a young girl who resolved conflicts whenever a technical problem occurred.

- 'More girls' -

In order to grab the ball and move it around, there's no remote control or human intervention -- just code and components giving the robots complete autonomy.

"Some devices use sensors to detect the infrared light emitted by the balls," said Farhan Daemi, a 24-year-old referee and robotics enthusiast since childhood.

"Others, more sophisticated, are equipped with cameras and use image-processing algorithms to detect the ball," he told AFP.

Robot competitions have been held for decades, and events such as the World Humanoid Robot Games have already featured football and other sports.

According to estimates, Iran trains more than 200,000 engineers every year, despite facing a significant brain drain abroad.

It also invests in robotics, artificial intelligence and drones, as well as in future talent through interschool competitions.

This year's 20th edition of Iran's annual RoboCup included 2,000 participants divided into 400 teams, according to organisers.

The best budding engineers hope to get noticed and secure recognition from the National Elites Foundation, a governmental organisation that supports young talents.

For teenage participant Avina Maleki, the dream would be for "more girls to take part. And, who knows, do better than the boys".