The HKUST Underwater Robot Competition 2024, organized under the HSBC / HKUST Robotics For Youths Programme on April 20-21, offered a unique opportunity for over 200 primary and secondary school students and teachers from 30 different schools to enhance their robotics skills, collaborate across schools, and embrace diversity.

Supported by The Hongkong Bank Foundation and hosted by the Center for Global and Community Engagement under the HKUST School of Engineering, this annual contest aims to provide experiential learning in iSTEAM (inclusion, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) education through robotics. It was launched in 2015 and has reached its ninth anniversary this year. It empowers HKUST undergraduates from various disciplines to mentor and guide Primary 4 to Secondary 3 students from diverse backgrounds, including the underprivileged, ethnic minorities, and students with special educational needs (SEN) or disabilities. Teachers without prior knowledge in robotics or science were also welcome to join and experience the fun of building underwater robots with their students.

On the first day (April 20), participants attended a training workshop to gain fundamental knowledge of designing and controlling underwater robots. Using the knowledge, they designed and built their own underwater robots in teams to take part in the inter-school competition. At the competition, the robots needed to complete various underwater missions within a set time limit to achieve the highest score.

The next day (April 21) saw the joint-school competition take place. Three teams with different backgrounds (comprising both primary and secondary school teams) were grouped together to collaborate and undertake another set of underwater missions with their robots. A key feature of the program, this joint-school competition tested students’ ability to communicate and work effectively with people from a wide spectrum. Three Best Joint-School Inclusion Awards were finally presented to the teams that exhibited exceptional collaboration and teamwork.

The joint-school competition provided a chance for the students to engage in cross-school collaboration.

Following the inter-school and joint-school competitions, the teams were required to showcase their robot design to a group of judges. The team with the most outstanding design was awarded the Best Engineering Award.

A team presented the design of their robot to the judges.

The participants also had the opportunity to view and learn about the robots built by different competition teams at HKUST.

 
A student from one of the competition teams at HKUST introduced the team’s robots to the participants.

The program concluded with an award presentation ceremony in the afternoon of April 21. The winners of the competition are as follows:

To further recognize participants’ effort, achievement levels of gold, silver, and bronze were awarded to 10, 13 and 7 teams respectively. Overall the teams demonstrated good teamwork, with three groups of school teams winning the Best Joint-School Inclusion Award.

Prof. Mow Wai-Ho, Associate Dean of Engineering (Undergraduate Studies), School of Engineering, HKUST (third left), Ms. Bonnie Yip, Senior Corporate Sustainability Manager, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (fourth left), Prof. Tim Woo, Director of the Center for Global and Community Engagement, School of Engineering, HKUST (fourth right), Prof. Tsui Chi-Ying, Director of the Academy for Bright Future Young Engineers, School of Engineering, HKUST (second left), Prof. Ben Chan, Associate Dean of Students, HKUST, and Associate Director of Center for Engineering Education Innovation, School of Engineering, HKUST (first left), Prof. Yeung Sai-Kit, Associate Professor of the Division of Integrative Systems and Design, Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies, HKUST (third right), Ms. Celia Lee, Head of Communications, External Affairs & Development, Office of the Dean of Engineering, HKUST (second right), and Ms. Bonnie Ho, Senior Manager (Development), Development & Alumni Office, HKUST (first right)