SINGAPORE – Sean Seah Ming Hui, 17, has been interested in exploring robotics from a young age. On Friday (June 17), he took another big step forward when his team was named champion of the OneArena Robotics Challenge.
The Blank. B team from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) was awarded a cash prize of $1,600.
The three-day challenge, from Wednesday (June 15) to Friday, involved 121 junior college students from 26 teams participating in person. The inaugural iteration took place virtually last year.
The event was organised by students from the College of Engineering at Nanyang Technological University. Mr Yeo Kai Xiang, 22, president of the organising committee, said the objective was to expose students to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) education through the use of robotics.
The theme of this year’s edition was aviation, with the second and third days of the competition held at Jewel Changi Experience Studio.
Teams consisting of four to five students each were presented with challenges, including one in which they had to extinguish fires in an aircraft.
Ethan Chan Ee Jay, 17, another member of the winning team, noted that one of the biggest hurdles was the unpredictable nature of the code they were using, which would sometimes have errors that required debugging.
But his team-mate, Toh Xue Hong, 17, said: “We learnt to create our own strategies and be very inventive.”
Mr Baey Yam Keng, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport, was the guest of honour at the event’s closing ceremony. In his speech, he emphasised the important role played by robotics in addressing real-world issues.
“I hope this year’s competition has given you a greater appreciation of what goes on behind the scenes in an airport, and how robotics and technology can be applied to improve airport operations,” he said.
