Tag Archives: China

Winners at RoboCup IranOpen 2016 (Photos)

Leave a reply

The 11th edition of RoboCup IranOpen took place at Tehran International Fairground. Around 2000 university and high school students from different countries competed in three categories including humanoids, flying robots and rescuers, divided into different leagues and difficulty levels. A total of 320 teams, 306 from Iran and 14 teams from abroad (Afghanistan, Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Peru, South Korea, United Kingdom and the USA), competed at this event.

The IranOpen has been organized by the Iranian RoboCup National Committee and Qazvin Azad University. The Committee was officially formed in July 2006 with the objective of promoting robotics and artificial intelligence research.

Winners RoboCup Soccer – 2D Simulation League
1st – Nexus 2D (Ferdowsi University Mashhad, Iran)
2nd – Miracle 2016 (Hefei Normal University, China)
3rd – MT2016 (Hefei University, China)
Technical challenge: Shiraz (Shiraz, Iran)

Winners RoboCup Soccer – 3D Simulation League
1st – UTAustinVilla (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
2nd – Apollo3D (Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China)
3rd – Kylinsky3D (Hohai University Wentian College, China)

Winners RoboCup Soccer – Small Size Robot League
1st – Immortals (Robotics Engineering Center, University of Tehran)
2nd – MRL (Azad University of Qazvin, Iran)
3rd – ZJUNLict (Zhejiang University, China)
Small Size robot soccer (or F180) focuses on the problem of intelligent multi-agent cooperation and control in a highly dynamic environment with a hybrid centralized/distributed system.

Winners RoboCup Soccer – Humanoid League (Adult, teen and kid size)
Adult: 1st – Baset Adult-Size (Baset Pazhuh Tehran Co, Iran)
Teen: 1st – AUTMan Teen (Amirkabir University, Iran / University of Manitoba, Canada)
Kid Size
1st – Bold Hearts (University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom)
2nd – Parand Kid-Size (Azad University of Parand, Iran)
3rd – FUmanoids (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)

Winners RoboCup Soccer – Standard Platform League
1st – Nao Team HTWK (HTWK Leipzig, Germany)
2nd – DAlnamite (TU Berlin / DAI-Labor, Germany)
Innovation challenge: MRL-SPL (Azad University of Qazvin, Iran)
The RoboCup Standard Platform League is a RoboCup robot soccer league, in which all teams compete with identical robots.

Winners RoboCup Rescue – Rescue Agent Simulation League
1st MRL (Azad University of Qazvin, Iran)
2nd S.O.S (Amirkabir University of Technology Tehran, Iran)
3rd Poseidon (Farzanegan High School Tehran, Iran)
Technical challenge: RAS-ROSHD (Roshd High School Tehran, Iran)

Winners RoboCup Rescue – Rescue Robot League
1st – MRL (Azad University of Qazvin, Iran)
2nd – YRA (Azad University of Yazd, Iran)
3rd – VRU (Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan, Iran)
Skill, discovery and mobility challenge: MRL
Flying rescue challenge: YRA

Winners RoboCup@Work
1st – ACE IAUK (Azad University of Kerman, Iran)
2nd – MEC (Shariati Technical College Tehran, Iran)

Winners RoboCup Junior – Soccer Open
1st – Helli Afra (Allameh Helli High School 10, Tehran, Iran)
2nd – AMOS (Salam Zeynoddin High School, Iran)
3rd – Allameh Tabatabaei (Allameh Tabatabaei High School)

Winners IranOpenDeminer – Tele-Operated Deminer Robots
1st – YRA (Azad University of Yazd, Iran)
2nd – Pasargad (Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran)
3rd (joint) – SRC (Azad University of Tabriz, Iran) and Malayer University (Malayer University, Hamedan, Iran)

Winners IranOpenDeminer – Small Size Intelligent Deminer Robots
1st – khayyam Robotic (Azad University of Neyshabur, Iran)
2nd – ROBOSINA (Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran)
3rd – RTL (Azad University of Arak, Iran)

Winners IranOpenUAV
1st (joint) – MRL (Azad University of Qazvin, Iran) and KN2C (K.N.Toosi University Tehran, Iran)
3rd – Cyrus UAV (Azad University of Kermanshah, Iran)

Winners IranOpenROV
1st – MRL (Azad University of Qazvin, Iran)
2nd – anZan Of Persian Gulf (Applied Science University of Ahvaz, Iran)

Related articles: The other Iran | Robocup

Video: Mehr News Agency | RoboCup IranOpen 2016

Sources: 2016 IranOpen; Mehr News Agency (MNA) 1; MNA 2; BORNA News; Fars News; IRNA 1; IRNA 2; ISNA 1; ISNA 2 (in Persian); Jam-e Jam Online 1; Jam-e Jam Online 2; dai-labor.de; Baltimore Sun; Epoch Times (in Persian); Facebook | DAI-Labor

Joint celebration of Chinese and Iranian New Year in Tehran (Photos)

Leave a reply

The Chinese Embassy in Tehran and the Iran-China Friendship Association have held a combined celebration marking Chinese New Year as well as Nowruz, Iranian upcoming New Year at Niavaran Cultural Complex.

Chinese cooks and artists offered traditional dishes and handicrafts to the visitors and Iranian artists performed traditional Persian music to celebrate the event. Iran’s Red Dragon International Wushu Association performed lion dance, a tradition in Chinese culture in which performers mimic a lion’s movements in a lion costume. Another part of the celebration was bian lian (literally: face changing), an ancient Chinese dramatic art where performers wear colored masks which they change from one face to another almost instantaneously with the swipe of a fan, a movement of the head, or wave of the hand.

Chinese Lunar New Year is also known as Spring Festival, as the season signifies a new start from the depths of winter, and the corresponding holiday carries the same meaning in Iranian culture. Nowruz, as the Iranian New Year is called in Persian, means “new day” and falls on the first day of the spring equinox every year. It is an ancient ritual dating back 2500 years and is rooted in Zoroastrianism.

There are remarkable similarities in the ways Chinese and Iranians celebrate their spring festivals, according to Alireza Salarian, consul general for Iran in Guangzhou: It is a time for family reunions, people who live away from their hometowns return for a family dinner. Fish is a common holiday dish, as is a version of the saying, “May you get more than you wish for every year.” Like the Chinese, Iranians enjoy a week long holiday, and children wear new clothes as they accompany their parents on visits to relatives.

While Chinese attach scrolls of blessing couplets on gateposts and offer guests nuts and candy in exquisite boxes, Iranians traditionally present an elaborate table setting with seven items starting with the letter “s” in the Persian alphabet.

Sources: China Daily, Mehr News Agency, Tehran Times, Wikipedia | Bian lian

China Philarmonic Orchestra performed together with the Tehran Symphony Orchestra in Iran (Photos)

Leave a reply

Iranian-Austrian conductor Alexander Rahbari conducted the Teheran Symphony Orchestra as it played Scheherazade by Rimski-Korsakov and Yu Long conducted the China Philharmonic playing the New World Symphony by Dvorak.

In preparation for the joint concert, Rahbari was in Beijing rehearsing with the China Philharmonic. “It’s a very nice orchestra,” he says. “I hadn’t been to Beijing before, but I am familiar with Chinese musicians and the way Chinese think. Over the past 40 years I’ve conducted a lot of orchestras with Chinese musicians.

“It took us just an hour and 40 minutes to finish rehearsals on the first day. This is a well disciplined orchestra. Good orchestras have similar qualities. When they get down to work, they’re not Chinese or Iranian or German; they’re all musicians.

Rahbari’s positive feelings about the orchestra seem to have been reciprocal. Zhao Yunpeng, the first cello, says: “He’s charismatic and he’s got very sharp ear. He seems to be able to pinpoint problems very quickly. […] We knew little about him before but the rehearsals have been terrific.”

The China Philharmonic Orchestra’s two-night appearance in Teheran is the fourth stop on a 14-day tour taking in five countries (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Iran and  Greece) on the Silk Road.

About Alexander Rahbari and the Tehran Symphony Orchestra
Rahbari first conducted the Teheran Symphony Orchestra about 40 years ago, before the Islamic revolution, when the orchestra was in its heyday and hosted the likes of the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and the choreographer Maurice Bejart.

Rahbari left Iran in 1976 and did not return for another 30 years. In 2005 he was invited to rebuild the Teheran Symphony Orchestra but turned down the offer on political grounds. But eight years later, when Hassan Rouhani was elected Iran’s president, he promised to revive the 80-year-old orchestra and invited Rahbari back.

Sources: China Daily | Musical diplomacy’s perfect harmony, Honar Online | Photos 1, Mehr News Agency | Photos 1, Mehr News Agency | Photos 2, Honar Online | Photos 2, ISNA | Photos

Chinese New Year Festival in Tehran, Iran

Leave a reply

More than 1,000 people took part in “Happy Chinese New Year in Iran” celebration in Tehran ahead of the date by enjoying Chinese food and martial arts performance.

The event, organized by the Chinese Embassy, was a chance for the participants to learn about Chinese traditions, such as Chinese medicine with a doctor from the University of Tehran showing the practice of acupuncture. The doctor said the Chinese medical clinic set up by the university receives dozens of patients every day as Chinese medicine has been gaining popularity in Iran in recent years.

Red Dragon, directed by Ahmad Rastgou, and co-produced by Iran and China was displayed at the event and a children’s workshop brought together Iranian and Chinese children through Chinese national games and entertainments. A charity shop presented Chinese traditional handicrafts including calligraphy and Chinese miniature along with fireworks entertained the guests.

Performers from a local martial arts club wowed the crowd with their stunning acts and lion dances. A treat to traditional Chinese snacks such as dumplings and noodles also attracted a long queue.

“This is my first time to join Chinese Spring Festival celebration. I think it’s very interesting. Spring Festival is the most important festival in China. I saw lion dances just now. It’s fantastic,” said a student studying Chinese language at university.

The Chinese ambassador, Mr. Pang Sen and the chairman of the Iran-China Friendship Society officially opened the New Year by painting the eyes of the dragon as a symbol of resurrection of the dragon. Mr. Sen accompanied guests in visiting pavilions designed to introduce Chinese culture and traditions.

China’s Ambassador to Tehran expressed gratitude for the guests and dignitaries in the ceremony and congratulated them on Chinese New Year; “Chinese New Year, like that of Iranians, is the spring and renewal of the life on earth, and is one of the greatest traditional festivities, which is widely celebrated across China with magnificent events,” he told the participants.

Wikipedia on the origins of Sino-Iranian relations:
The Parthians were apparently very intent on maintaining good relations with China and also sent their own embassies, starting around 110 BC: “When the Han envoy first visited the kingdom of Anxi (Parthia), the king of Anxi dispatched a party of 20,000 horsemen to meet them on the eastern border of the kingdom… When the Han envoys set out again to return to China, the king of Anxi dispatched envoys of his own to accompany them… The emperor was delighted at this.” (Shiji, 123, trans. Burton Watson).

In this link you can find a video of this year’s Chinese New Year Festival (with Chinese speaking Iranians): CCTV News Content

Here is a video report of last year’s Chinese New Year celebrations in Tehran (in English):

Sources: IRNA | Photos, wikipedia, Mehr News Agency, CCTV News Content