Professor A. Fernando Ribeiro, associate professor at Universidade do Minho and RoboCup trustee, recalls Gerhard K. Kraetzschmar’s leadership and friendship in RoboCup and how he inspired young people through engineering outreach in Portugal and Leipzig.
Ribeiro first met Kraetzschmar at RoboCup in 1999, where he led the OLM Sparrows. Across events in Seattle, Fukuoka, Padua, and Portugal, Kraetzschmar helped resolve rule disputes, guide league meetings, and shape RoboCup decisions. Ribeiro also remembers his warmth outside work, from shared dinners and football games to making time for friends despite a busy schedule.
Ribeiro describes outreach at the University of Minho, including adapted electronic toys for children with cerebral palsy and school visits. To give students practical experience, he started RoboParty in 2007 as a three-day educational event. More than 100 teams registered for the first event, so organizers moved it to a sports pavilion and recruited university students as volunteers.
Participants aged 11 to 19 solder and assemble an Arduino-based robot on the first day, program it on the second, and can try optional challenges on the third. The event also provides sleeping space, low-cost meals, and activities such as sports and demonstrations. Teams keep their robots, and adults help as mentors; Ribeiro says guidance and encouragement help young people put their access to information to use.
In 2009, Ribeiro invited Kraetzschmar to speak to young people about engineering using accessible language and no mathematical formulas. Kraetzschmar connected engineering to enjoying one’s work, explained that expertise requires learning, and used RoboCup Junior examples to make robotics approachable. Ribeiro recalls that hundreds of students listened closely and that Kraetzschmar also joined in the event’s activities.
Kraetzschmar invited Ribeiro’s team to bring the event to RoboCup 2016 in Leipzig, where it ran as RoboCamp. Ribeiro says the young participants built robots they could take home and continue programming. In the closing discussion, he emphasizes the value of mentors who stay alongside students and of adults making time to work with young people.
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