Attracting students to the engineering courses: the experience of the Brazilian Robotics Olympiad

National Scienti?c Olympiads are initiatives that intent to act as an instrument for primary and secondary education improvement as well as a way to identify talented young people who may be encouraged to pursue technical-scientific careers, particularly engineering careers. In a technological society, the more technological the subject is, the more appealing it is to the young generations, and robotics can play an important role in this scenario. However, an Olympiad centered in the robotics theme can fall into many traps, such as: massive masculine participation, more attraction to advanced ages and restriction to upper higher classes due to the usually high cost of the robotic apparatus. These traps can limit the amplitude of the Olympiad. This paper presents the Brazilian Robotics Olympiad (OBR), an initiative that keep strong relation to the technological changes that affect the young of the information society. The adopted methodology ? with practical, theoretical and mixed approaches, as well as a strong contact with undergraduate students ? has proven to be capable of motivating students from all group ages, genders, and social classes, attracting them to the engineering ?eld. Results refer to data obtained from OBR 2009¬2010, involving 1,595 teachers responsible for the 48,608 students that took part in the event.