Kids descend on Sydney for robotics championships

More than 500 students from all over the world, some as young as nine, have converged into Sydney to compete in the Asia-Pacific's 'FIRST Robotics Competition'.

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The competition is a chance for these students to showcase their mechanical and electrical engineering skills, while competing in a fun and educational environment.

"The whole program is about inspiring kids into science and technology ... We turn it into a tournament and more of a celebration than anything else," Tournament Director Luan Heimlich said.

Competing teams build and program little robots, which are able to move or pick up objects.

"It's like a mini university degree, they're learning about teamwork, they're learning about strategy, they're learning about discipline of having a script and planning," Team Coach Carlo Manfredini said.

Lili from the Sydney-based team, the Mindstormians, said her team invented their moving robot through trial and error.

"We had to do programs that could either do two things at once or did it using not much sort of memory," she said.

The all-girl team said they wanted to continue competing well beyond this competition.


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1 min read

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By Shanthi Benjamin

Source: SBS


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