The host team from Tran Cao Van Primary School and Hanoi’s Viet Kids won
the two first prizes in the National Robothon (Robot) Competition at
Military Zone 5’s Sport Centre in central Da Nang city on November 3.
The competition, titled “Smart City”, drew over 100
students from 10 primary schools in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang
city.
All teams had an hour to programme a robot. Da
Nang’s team won in the senior division (fourth and fifth grades), while
the visitors from Hanoi won in the junior division (first and third
grades).
The winners will officially represent Vietnam in the International Robothon Competition in the Philippines on November 23.
“It took us only 22 seconds to finish the task. We had a little
trouble with our automatic robot, but we settled the problem to win over
tough rivals from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City,” said Pham Nhu Hai,
captain of D8 team from Tran Cao Van school.
“The
most difficult job was adjusting the light sensor. Our squad of three
members worked hard for three months and our efforts paid off.”
Le Minh Duong, 9, from Hanoi’s Viet Kids, said he was happy with his
achievements in his first-ever competition. “It’s the first time that I
was in a contest far away from home. We felt nervous in the first
minutes, but we did our best to win,” Duong said.
Jin Chan, vice-president of Eduspec Holding Company from Malaysia, said
the competition was good practice for kids to become comfortable with
information technology.
“It’s an exciting game for
kids. It also creates a foundation for students to build their science
and technology knowledge. We hope that Da Nang will host another
competition,” Jin said.
He also said he hoped more teams from Vietnam would compete in the International Robothon Competition in the Philippines.
Nguyen The Trung, chief executive officer of DTT Information
Technology Group, who hosted the competition, said over 3,000 primary
schools in Vietnam had started robotics programmes since they were
introduced in 2011.
This was the first robot
competition for primary schools held in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City will
host the second national competition next year.
Last year, Hanoi hosted the International Robotics competition.-VNA