IEEE Sarawak’s challenge tests secondary students’ skills in robotics
KUCHING: Some 40 secondary school students took part in second edition of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE) Sarawak’s Robotics Competition here last weekend.
They competed in the Junior (Secondary 1-3 and Equivalent) and Senior (Secondary 4-6 and Equivalent) categories of the event, held in collaboration with Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus’ Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science.
The key objective of the IEEE Sarawak Robotics Competition was to nurture and stimulate students’ interest in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.
It also served as a platform for students to demonstrate their creativity and innovation in solving engineering and technology problems, as well as to cultivate their teamwork and spirit of sportsmanship.
For the second edition, SM Teknik Sejingkat emerged winner of the Senior category in a tight fight against the first runner-up, SMK Jalan Arang. SMK Jalan Arang took third place.
In the Junior category, the teams from SMK Jalan Arang bagged the winning and first runner-up titles, while the group from St Joseph’s Private School finished third.
The winner, first runner-up and second runner-up teams of each category were given cash prizes of RM300, RM200 and RM100, respectively.
Moreover, each winning team was also presented with a set of ‘MBot Educational Robot Kit’.
For the Junior category, each participating team of the ‘Roborace Challenge’ must programme a robot to race over a track in the shortest possible time, while maintaining its move within the track.
The robots must be fully autonomous and able to adapt to the track, which was only unveiled to the participants on the day of the race.
Meanwhile, each participating team of the Senior category must devise a robot to compete in the Pathfinder Challenge, where the robot was required to manoeuvre through a labyrinth and find the correct exit, without any prior knowledge about the configuration of the maze.
In both categories, the participants were not only tested based on the lap time, but also on the robots’ performances and the technical robustness of the algorithm that the students had designed.
Prior to the competition, the participants underwent training at a one-day boot camp, which introduced them to robotics and the basics in robot programming.