The economic crisis may have limited funds, but Greek students are pursuing robotics on a shoestring budget and leaping over financial shortfalls using innovation and sheer ingenuity. Three senior high school students from Xanthi, northern Greece, snagged the silver medal at the 12th Annual World Robot Olympiad that took place at the iconic Al Shaqab Indoor Arena in Doha, Qatar.

Vasilis, Alexandros and Harris, from the 1st Lyceum of Xanthi, showed the rest of the world the stuff Greece is made of by creating robot models that look and act like human athletes on a football field. The students worked on their hobby for two hours every Sunday and practiced at school over summer as part of their training, and yet they managed to outrank a number of Asian students who have a tradition in robotics and dedicate 1-2 hours per day training for Olympiads suchas the ones that the Greek students are excelling at.

The boys from Xanthi were not the only Greeks to succeed at the championship. WRO Hellas has often noted great success in international competitions. 16 Greek teams made it to the finals with students from Larisa, Chalandri and more. The primary school of Leontios Lyceum of Nea Smyrni also ranked 13th from 79 schools from around the world. In fact, the Greek championships are viewed as a hotbed of robotics talent with growing interest from just 25 participants in 2009 and 190 in 2015.