AJHS-ASHS BluBLOC's "Future Engineers" Team finishes among Top 8 at WRO Asia-Pacific Open Championship 2025

Representing both the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila, the AJHS-ASHS BluBLOC Varsity Team—composed of students from the Ateneo de Manila Junior High School (AJHS) and Senior High School (ASHS)—made an impressive international robotics debut at the World Robot Olympiad (WRO). The team placed in the Top 8 of the Future Engineers category during the Asia-Pacific Open Championship, held from 19–21 September 2025 at Le Pavilion, Pasay City.

Leading the team on his birthday, Junby Layaoen (ASHS 12-Xavier) was joined by teammates Liam Daga (ASHS 12-Daniel) and Marcus Crisostomo (AJHS 8-Chabanel), under the mentorship of BluBLOC coaches Jason Arias, Joel Falgui, and Lavi Subang.

In the Future Engineers category, teams were tasked with designing and building an autonomous, self-driving car capable of navigating a course, avoiding obstacles, and returning to its original starting position. Each attempt also featured a “surprise challenge”—introducing random changes such as varying starting points, course directions (clockwise or counterclockwise), and wall sizes. Teams were further evaluated on the engineering design of their robots as well as the quality of their documentation and technical reports submitted beforehand.

The Ateneo BluBLOC team secured 8th place overall in a category dominated by Team Malaysia (1st and 3rd place) and Team Bangladesh (2nd place). Despite achieving a near-perfect performance during practice sessions, the team faced technical difficulties during their recorded run. Nonetheless, BluBLOC earned commendation for its innovative use of native and recycled materials. According to Coach Arias, several international mentors noted that “their winning AI-powered robots could have been outperformed by the Ateneo robot made of recycled chopsticks” had it executed its final run flawlessly. The team earned the majority of its points from its engineering design and documentation.

Notably, three members of the BluBLOC contingent were also given special roles during the competition. AJHS Grade 8 student Marcus Crisostomo and Coach Jason Arias led the recitation of the Fair Play Oath for participants and coaches, while Coach Lavi Subang served as a member of the international judging panel for the Future Innovators Elementary category.

Hosted by the Philippines for the first time since 2010, the World Robot Olympiad Asia-Pacific Open Championship 2025 gathered 160 teams from 25 countries across 5 continents, competing in 8 different categories. Qualification for the championship required a podium finish in each country’s national competition. Ateneo de Manila advanced to the Asia-Pacific Open’s Future Engineers category after placing in the Top 6 of the Philippine Robotics Olympiad finals held in Bulacan last 16 August.

The BluBLOC team joined other Filipino representatives from Grace Christian College, Don Bosco Parañaque, and Philippine Science High School – Cordillera Campus as part of the Philippine National Robotics Team for Future Engineers. Many of the top-performing teams will advance to the WRO World Finals in Singapore, set for 26 to 28 November 2025.