A group of young innovators from Top Link Global Colleges in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija brought home the gold after winning at the World Robotics Olympiad Asia Pacific Open Championship 2025 held in Pasay City.

The international competition featured participants from 24 countries.

The team, called Robotics Catalyst, won the 1st Place Champion – Future Innovators and the Best Team Award for their project named “Project FRANCIS,” inspired by Pope Francis.

The name stands for Futuristic Robot for Assisting Navigation, Care, Interaction, and Support.

“So basically po, si Project Francis is a hope assistant robot. But he doesn’t just talk to you or he doesn’t just interact in a conversational way. But he protects any member of the family in the house,” Joselito Broblan Jr., the team leader, said.

Project FRANCIS is designed to assist and protect families at home. It can detect smoke, temperature changes, and water levels during floods. The robot can also send alerts and information to family members and local authorities programmed into its system. Aside from safety functions, it can remind users about daily tasks and medication schedules, and even charge mobile phones. The robot itself is solar-powered.

“As young innovators, we created Francis not just to set for the competition but also to solve problems po — to help us humans, us people,” Broblan added.

Coach Ernest Alferez said the project’s innovation and originality gave them an advantage over other teams.

“The edge of our team is we used the Algorithm Phase platform. So all the materials that we used were purely made by our students,” Alferez said.

The team plans to further develop Project FRANCIS to make it more functional and accessible to the public. They also encouraged fellow youth to pursue their dreams and education despite challenges.