CHIȘINĂU, Moldova — October 12, 2026 — FIRST Global Team Moldova has won the FIRST Global Challenge 2026 in Incheon, Republic of Korea, securing one gold and two silver medals at the international robotics competition bringing together national teams from nearly 190 countries. Moldova won gold as part of the tournament’s winning alliance alongside Uzbekistan, Venezuela and El Salvador, while also earning silver for the engineering design of its robot and silver for its Ember Mesh innovation project.
The Moldovan national team was represented by ENIGMA, a team with its roots in the village of Boșcana, Criuleni district. Four of its five student members — Uliana Vîntu, Gabriel Josan, Valeria Untila and Augustin Leșan — study at the “Mihai Stratulat” Theoretical High School in Boșcana, making a rural school the backbone of Moldova’s national team. Daniel Țanga, from the “Boris Dinga” Theoretical High School in Criuleni, completed the student team. They were mentored by Elena Frunza, from the Boșcana school, and Veronica Eșanu, Coordinator of the National Educational Robotics Program and mentor with the Innovate Moldova Programme. ENIGMA was selected to represent Moldova following its performance at the 2026 FIRST Tech Challenge Moldova National Championship.
To solve contest’s challenge, the team brought their technology concept to the global stage. Ember Mesh is a network of autonomous sensor capsules designed to detect forest fires early beneath the tree canopy, where conventional aerial monitoring can be less effective. The capsules transmit environmental data to a monitoring platform and can be deployed by drones or helicopters in remote and difficult-to-access areas. Designed as an affordable solution that could be deployed by communities internationally, Ember Mesh advanced to the final round of the FIRST Global New Technology Experience and received the silver FIRST Global Innovator Award, finishing among the competition’s leading innovation projects.
The result further strengthens Moldova’s exceptional record at FIRST Global. Moldova entered the 2026 competition at the top of FIRST Global’s all-time gold-medal ranking with eight gold medals; the victory in Incheon brings the country’s tally to nine gold medals. Since joining FIRST Global in 2017, Moldova has won bronze in Mexico in 2018; three gold medals in Dubai in 2019; gold in Geneva in 2022; gold and silver in Singapore in 2023; two gold medals in Athens in 2024; and gold and an honorable mention in Panama in 2025. The 2026 edition adds another gold and two silver medals — the Zhang Heng Award for Engineering Design and the FIRST Global Innovator Award — to that record.
Moldova’s international performance is rooted in more than a decade of investment in educational robotics. Launched in 2014 as the RoboClub pilot, the National Educational Robotics Program has expanded from a handful of participating schools into a nationwide network of more than 270 robotics clubs in schools and libraries, engaging more than 60,000 students in practical STEM learning. The programme gives students hands-on experience in programming, engineering, design, teamwork and problem-solving, creating a pathway from introductory school robotics to advanced national and international competition. The preparation and participation of FIRST Global Team Moldova were supported by the Ministry of Education and Research and the National Agency for Curriculum and Evaluation; the Innovate Moldova Programme, funded by Sweden and the United Kingdom and implemented by the Foundation for Development of the Republic of Moldova; Premier Energy Distribution; the Technical University of Moldova and FabLab Chișinău; and Ozonteh.
