FIRST Robotics Competition held in SZ 国际机器人挑战赛在深圳举行
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Members of a student team talk during the the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Shenzhen Regional on Friday. Courtesy of FRC Shenzhen Regional organizers
THE Shenzhen University Town Sports Center buzzed with cheers and applause Friday when the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Shenzhen Regional kicked off. A total of 35 high-school student teams from China, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Poland and other countries joined the two-day contest with their hand-crafted robots.
Combining the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology, the FRC is a world-class robotics competition that was first launched in the United States in 1989. It uses robotics to inspire students to improve their hands-on skills and innovation capabilities.
Constrained by strict rules, limited resources and an intense six-week time limit, teams of students are challenged to raise funds, design a team brand and hone their teamwork skills, as well as build and program industrial-size robots to compete in a difficult field match against like-minded contestants.
The rules of the game pit two alliances, consisting of three teams each, against one another. The alliances get points when their robots pick up power cubes on the battleground and put them onto a scale or a switch. The alliance with the highest score wins the game.
The seven teams who won the top prizes in the FRC Shenzhen Regional will participate in the FIRST Championship to be held in the United States next month.
Yin Shifei, secretary general of the China Urban Youth Robotics Alliance, one of the co-organizers of the FRC Shenzhen Regional, said the competition not only enables students to improve their programming, decision-making and problem-solving skills, but also encourages them to cooperate and share with other people.
According to Yin, a Shenzhen team invited over 40 left-behind children to the city to watch the FRC game because they wanted to make education more equitable. These children’s parents are migrant workers in Shenzhen, but they are left behind in their hometowns, mostly in rural areas where quality education is inaccessible.
Yin said a big advantage in participating in the FRC is gaining access to millions of dollars in college scholarships made available by over 100 colleges and universities across the globe. He said the amount provided to students in scholarships this year is above US$60 million.
“We are also in talks with Chinese universities and hope that students who stand out in the FRC competition can be offered an opportunity to attend the independent recruitments at these universities,” he said.
Shenzhen became the first city to host an FRC regional in Asia last year, and another regional contest will be held in Shanghai this year.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded in 1989 to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology.
Editor/ Lily