The event was initiated and led by Alphatronic and Casa Azul (https://isaschools.org/events/world-creativity-and-innovation-day-2026/ )

World Creativity and Innovation Day, celebrated annually on April 21, highlights the essential role of creativity and innovation in addressing global challenges and achieving sustainable development. Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2017 through Resolution 71/284, the day promotes creative problem-solving and fosters innovative thinking worldwide.

General goals: 

Raising awareness about the importance of Creativity and Innovation:

Creativity fuels progress by providing solutions to complex challenges such as poverty, economic inequality, and climate change. It powers industries like design, media, performing arts, and technology, making significant contributions to job creation, economic growth, and cultural preservation.

Encouraging student efforts to contribute to Global Innovation

On this day, individuals, organizations, and nations are encouraged to embrace creativity as a tool for solving global challenges.

Promoting STEAM education, cross curricular activities, addressing real life challenges

Encourage critical and creative thinking, design thinking, trial and error process, educational strategies that focus on discovery, Project Based Learning and Service Learning. Develop knowledge, skills, tools and values, encourage students to actively participate in society and address global challenges. Support educational initiatives to contribute to a more stable and prosperous world, to find creative solutions and innovate in various fields.

Supporting the Sustainable Development Goals:

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth – Promoting economic opportunities through creative industries.
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure – Supporting innovation and technological progress to drive sustainable development.
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production – Encouraging innovative solutions to create sustainable systems and reduce waste.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

We continue the tradition of Alphatronic SL involvement in the community with the attempt to connect STEAM education with the 17 SDGs:

End in mind/ Aim: The project “Leadership through Innovation. Solving Global Challenges with STEAM” is intended to invite teams of students to show leadership by using their STEAM related knowledge ans competencies to address a need in their community (connected with the 17 SDGs).

Need: In a world marked by global challenges, it is not enough for students to understand technology/STEAM subjects; they must use it to solve real problems. Through this partnership, we are inviting schools to transforme into a living laboratory of active citizenship, where science, robotics, critical thinking are put at the service of the community.

Beneficiaries & partners: The  initiators of the project are 15 high school students and 3 teachers; invitation is launched to middle and high schools in Cluj county (with openness  to schools in other counties if there is interest), also to STEAM specialists and community partners.

The project is based on the synergy between the rigor of STEAM and the empathy of Service-Learning.

• Innovation with purpose: Students do not just learn scientific theory, do not just apply in the classroom / laboratory, do not build robots just for competitions, but create, test, implement technical solutions (prototypes, applications, mechanisms) for problems identified in the Cluj community.

• Leadership through Service-Learning: Leadership is cultivated when a student takes responsibility for solving a real problem, using modern tools.

• Addressing global challenges at the local level: We apply the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) directly in our neighborhood or village.

Student Leader 2025-26: Sofia Manyet

Teacher Coordinators: Gabriela Iusan, Simina Bejenaru

Congratulations to the AlphaBricks team and Miss Kim for earning 3rd place at the FIRST LEGO League Explore Festival in Bucharest. The team demonstrated outstanding performance, teamwork, and strong core values. They were also honored with the Coding Award and the opportunity to represent Romania and Transylvania college in China.

Activity aim: To connect with local schools in our area, and teach the students about various famous scientists and thier impacton the world. After that to apply that know and see how it has helped create the STEM and robotics field of today. The invited students worked in teams to create from lego pieces some innovative buildings or machines based on the work of one of the scientists they sudied about. 

Partners: County Library, Pedagogical High School

Alphatronic Outreach Activities - March 2026: Connecting with STEM specialists

• ABC Incubator

Activity aim: To connect with the local STEM and startup community, learn how ideas become real products and build meaningful relationships with mentors and professionals outside FIRST. We attended the keynote and networking session at ABC Incubator, listened to the discussion about transforming ideas into strong products, introduced Alphatronic to participants and met our two UTCN mentors. The event helped us practise professional communication and connect FTC with real-world engineering and innovation.

Partners: Startup founders, innovators, engineers, mentors, and other young people interested in technology, entrepreneurship, and product development.

• EDTECH: The impact of digital transformation on education: implications for AI adoption

Aim: To connect with professionals from education and technology, explore the impact of digital transformation and AI in education, and share our perspective as FTC students. We attended an EdTech event focused on the impact of digital transformation in education and the adoption of AI. Alex and Răzvan interacted with speakers and professionals from both education and technology and presented our robotics team and FIRST Tech Challenge. A very meaningful part of the event was that the specialists wanted to hear our perspective as students and robotics team members on the use of AI in education.

Partners: Education professionals, university professors, software developers, technology specialists, and people interested in AI and digital education.

• Rospin 

Aim: To present our team and robot in a engineering convention. We attended a space-themed engineering convention in our hometown. There, we took part in a few demo matches with other teams. It was exciting but also a bit challenging at times. We learned a lot and really enjoyed meeting and working alongside others.

Alphatronic achievements before the regional competition: 

This weekend, Alphatronic team, Miss Gabriela ad Mr Flaviu sucessfully participated in 2 consecutive robotics meets: 

• Saturday Febr. 14th, "Signal of Love", Mediaș -  they reached nr.1 in our region. 

• Sunday, Febr. 15th,  "LOVE is in the MEET", Curtea de Arges - Alphatronic has the highest ranking score, match points, base points, auto points and high score. Shortly the first place in all categories. 

Congratulations, amazing team! 

Robotics is a sport - Debate & primary workshops

DinoFriend 

Primary Grades from Cluj county are invited to participate in the DinoFriend Challenge (project competition)

Team Structure: 3-5 students + 1 teacher Registration Form sent. Deadline for registration and video submission 14.11.2025

Instructions: Students in the participating classes will be divided into teams and will research different dinosaur species that existed millions of years ago, choosing their favorite species. Then, the students will create a 3D model of the dinosaur from the chosen species, using as many recyclable materials as possible. For the created dinosaurs to be judged, we kindly ask all teams to submit a short video presentation of the selected dinosaur in the attached form below. The video will be approximately 2-3 minutes long and will fit the STEAM* theme, including interesting facts about the dinosaur, as well as details about how its 3D model was built, what it looked like when it existed, and the living environment where the dinosaur could be found.

Youth Leadership Encounter 2025, Miami

The topic of this edition of Youth Leasdership Encounter  was: Leadership Accross Oceans in Preserving Marine Ecosystems.  

TC was represented by a delegation of 18 students and 2 teachers. We prepared 2 project presentations: "Into the Deep", by Alphatronic Robotics team - winning the 3rd prize in this competition hosted by Florida International University - and "Dive into the Deep Blue",  by G7Y8, describing their project implemented last year under the coordination of Alphatronic. 

We connected with students from 12 international schools and witnessed great initiatives related to preserving marine life: 

 ⁠ 1. Agora Lledo International School in Castellon de la Plana, Spain •⁠  ⁠Dana Commemorations Day & •⁠  ⁠Do you really know shacks 

 2.⁠ ⁠Agora Madrid Internacional School, Spain •⁠  ⁠Leadership Across Ocean: Uniting Culture to Preserve Marine Ecosystems

 3.⁠ ⁠Agora Sant Cugat International School, Barcelona. Spain •⁠  ⁠The endangered Mediterranean Treasure

 4.⁠ ⁠Agora Granada College International School, Spain •⁠  ⁠Biodiversity and Conservation in Spain

 5.⁠ ⁠Agora Portals International School, Mallorca, Spain •⁠  ⁠Posidonia Oceanica

 6.⁠ ⁠St. Catherine Moorlands School, Buenos Aires, Argentina •⁠  ⁠Uniting Cultures to Preserve Marine Ecosystems

 7.⁠ ⁠Swostishree Gurukul IB World School, Nepal •⁠  ⁠Plastic Packing and the Ocean

 8.⁠ ⁠Transylvania College, Romania •⁠  ⁠Into the Deep &  •⁠ Dive into the deep blue 

 9.⁠ ⁠Colegio Lakeside, Jalisco Mexico •⁠  ⁠Reducing the use of plastic bottles in our school.

10.⁠ ⁠Cempaka international school, Malaysia •⁠  ⁠Pollution of oceans by plastic waste & indigenous community in ocean conservation.

11.⁠ ⁠Avant Garde Academy in Hollywood, Florida! •⁠  ⁠Biodegradable Fishing net

12. Nika School, Moscow  •⁠ Biodegradable Alternatives in the Arctic Circle Seas

The YLE week was a very interesting one. We learned about marine life, aligators, tortoise, hurricanes, planets, etc and visited: Everglades Holiday Park, NSU & Margaritaville, Marine Environmental Education Center, FIU, Hurricane Center, Sawgrass Mills, Frost Museum, UM Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and Seaquarium Marine Experience.

The host of the event was Avant Garde Academy, a Leader in Me Lighthouse school (please see the Leadership page for photos).

We also visited Hollywood Florida and Miami city and beach. 

Equipe de Robotica #24527 - VIDEO - August 28th  

6 Flags Team Building - July 30th 2025 -  We had fun at the amusement park

GandIT in România Gala - July 28th - Alphatronic received the Lyceum Award. Mr. Călin Grigorovici, one of the Alphatronic mentors, received the award on their behalf, as our amazing team participated at the same time in another robotics competition in Maryland, USA.

As the organisers mentioned, "this Gala is not a gala in the sense of walking trophies and diplomas from one place to another and socializing. All the award winners do not need any additional recognition. Their notoriety fortunately covers all continents and all those high and rarefied spaces of authentic performance." 

Zoom interviewes were taken in advance, trying to sketch the "portrait" of Alphatronic and also of Transylvania College. The material was uploaded to our educational platform www.ganditinromania.ro  and on Youtube, starting its journey to young Romanians, to offer another type of role model. Fragments of the film was also presented at the Gala.

Transylvania Tech Challenge - June 21th 2025 - Alphatronic competed against other teams at PrimeTech's event, also set a NEW WORLD RECORD: 590 !!!

Media interviews:  

 Objective: to communicate publicly about our progress as a team and our future goals:

• Romania inteligenta - Antena1 (April 26th 2025)

• TVR Cluj (April 26th 2025)

• Prima TV  (April 26th 2025)

• Radio Cluj  (April 25th)

FUN FTC  - April 19th , location:  George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston - opened on September 26, 1987, it is located on the east side of Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The center was named for internationally recognized entrepreneur, engineer, civic leader, philanthropist and Houstonian George R. Brown.

The "FUN FTC" event at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX refers to the FIRST Championship, specifically the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) component of the larger competition, which took place there in April 2025. The George R. Brown Convention Center is a recurring host for the FIRST Championship, which includes FTC, FRC, and FLL programs, and will host again in 2026 and 2027.