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A robotics team from Whangaparāoa College will compete in the inaugural OneWorld Global Robotics competition in Sydney next year.
The global championship will see Year 8 to 11 students from three other New Zealand schools, as well as Australia, Singapore, China and Taiwan, take part.
Team Pluto, with members Lenny Maguire, Shiven Pillay, Angus MacLeod, Angus Cameron and Terry Whittingham, qualified for the global championship after placing second overall at the Auckland area competition, held on November 16 and 17.
The competition’s theme was ‘Smart Cities’, and participants were marked on their ability to solve problems, including over-crowding and pollution, and communicate their ideas in three different sections – technical, poster-making and presentation awards.
The group won both the poster making and presentation.
In the technical section, Whangaparaoa had to control five of the event’s robots by using code to make them perform certain tasks.
While all five group members have been learning to code since Year 6, they say teaching a robot Artificial Intelligence was a new skill they had to learn.
Pluto member Lenny Maguire says the biggest challenge was the competition’s time constraints.
“It was really stressful, but it taught us how to work quickly within a limited timeframe,” Lenny says. “Apparently we will have more time in Sydney, so we are looking forward to that.”
The competition is run by Actura, an Australian organisation that encourages engagement in STEAM subjects – science, technology, engineering, art and maths.
Actura say the OneWorld Robotics Competition is the first to offer AIoT – the combination of artificial intelligence technology with the Internet of Things infrastructure.
