1. FIRA 1999 Calendar

The FIRA 1999 calendar is now available on the FIRA web site, http://www.fira.net.
It furnishes all the information pertaining to this year's FIRA events. The names of
relevant persons are also posted and they may be contacted for more details about the
events. If you have any FIRA related events scheduled for the year, please send the
details to so that it can be included in the FIRA 1999 calendar.



2. FIRA Robot World Cup Brazil 1999.

The FIRA 1999 competitions will be held at the Colegio Notre Dame, Campinas,
Brazil, from 4 to 8 August 1999.
Four regional championships ? South America, North America, Europe and Asia-
Pacific - will be held prior to the Robot World Cup to select the teams for the
competition in Brazil. Please refer to the FIRA Calendar for more details on regional
championships. Only the teams, which qualify through the FIRA regional
championships, can proceed to participate in the FIRA Robot World Cup Brazil 1999.
Through the regional championships, 15 teams will be selected for MiroSot category
and 6 each for the NaroSot, RoboSot and S-KheperaSot categories. The teams of
NaroSot, Robosot, S-KheperaSot and the selected 15 teams for MiroSot have to
register by June 1, 1999 at .

FIRA'99 team selection procedure:

A. MiroSot - 15 teams

1. North American Region - 3 teams
2. South American Region - 3 teams
3. Europe-Africa Region - 3 teams
4. Asia-Pacific Region - 6 teams

B. NaroSot - 6 teams
C. RoboSot - 6 teams
D. S-KheperaSot - 6 teams

For more details, please visit the web site .



3. Results of FIRA '99 South America Championship.

The FIRA '99 South America Championship was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil from
24th ? 28th March, 1999. An estimated 35 thousand people watched the games.
The teams, which qualified for the Robot World Cup are:

(a) MINEIroSOT (Team Leader: Mario Campos)
(b) Bravo (Team Leader: Roberto Tavares)
(c) Carrossel Caipira (Team Leader: Rene Pegoraro)



4. Robot Olympiad.

Active preparatory work is under way to organize the "Robot Olympiad" which will
be hosted by KAIST from August 18 to 21, 1999. The primary objective of the
Robot Olympiad is to provide a platform for young students, from primary to high
school levels, to compete with a variety of robot systems. Talented young people, by
pitching their intelligent robots against each other, will further the cause of science
and technology.
An International Robot Olympiad Committee (IROC) is being formed. Honorable
people, who are very active in the sphere of robotics, have been invited to join the
committee. The composition of the committee will be finalized and announced in the
near future. Two web sites - & - are being
setup for the event. An Internet based educational program will commence soon for
the benefit of the participants. The Korean version will be operational from 26th April
and the English version a week later. The Internet Education is intended for the
students and teachers who are interested in robot systems and those who want to
participate in the Robot Olympiad. The selection procedure will be posted on the
web sites prior to the Robot Olympiad.


5. Proceedings of FIRA Robot World Cup France'98

Proceedings of FIRA Robot World Cup France '98 are still being prepared. It is
expected to be ready in the near future and the availability of the proceedings will be
made known as soon as it is published.


6.

SBS, one of the top three broadcasting stations in Korea, is currently filming and
broadcasting a multi-episode drama serial titled "KAIST." The theme of the drama
serial originated from the robot-soccer club of KAIST, called MR (Micro Robot),
preparing for the FIRA Robot World Cup Championship. MR, the real name of the
autonomous robot-soccer club in KAIST, has been retained by the producers of the
enthralling drama. This program is on the air every Sunday evening. Those who miss
an episode can catch up with the action later as the drama is being rebroadcast on
.


7. Visitors to FIRA Headquarters.

Prof. Gourab Sen Gupta of Singapore Polytechnic will visit the FIRA Headquarters
in the third week of April 1999. Two of Prof. Gupta's students will accompany him
to develop robot soccer systems at the Intelligent Control Laboratory, KAIST. The
students will be attached to ICL for a period of 2 months.


---------------------------------------------------------------------
THE FEDERATION OF INTERNATIONAL ROBOT-SOCCER ASSOCIATION
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor-in-Chief: Jong-Hwan Kim

Associate Editors:
Chao Cheng Holger Haas Jeffrey Johnson
Krzysztof R. Kozlowski Amitabha Mukerjee Luca Odetti
Victor Romano Castillo Toledo Andon Topalov
Prahlad Vadakkepat Jing Wang Gourab Sen Gupta

Editorial Staffs: Jin-Ah Lee Hye-Young Park

Dept. of Electrical Engineering, KAIST,
373-1 Kusong-dong, Yusong-gu,
Taejon 305-701, Korea.
Tel: 42-869-3448
Fax: 42-869-8010
E-mail: fira@fira.net
http://www.fira.net/
=====================================================

[July 8, 1998]

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